The start of the new era of Mars exploration

The planet Mars, also called Red Planet, is still a subject of many controversial questions, with the most important question being whether the life ever existed on Mars or not. The NASA scientists hope that their brand new and most advanced rover Curiosity that has just landed on Red Planet will give them plenty of new info about the history of Mars.

Curiosity is the most complex rover ever sent into space, and after a very sophisticated landing it is already collecting valuable data, that will perhaps give the answer on not only was Mars once planet that supported life but also on whether Mars can sustain life in years to come.

The president Obama has already spoken about sending humans to Mars in 2030s, and this mission could tell us whether this president's bold vision has a chance to turn into the reality or not.

Curiosity will collect data for the next two years, hoping to find some kind of  microbial proof that would connect Mars with the possibility of life and future colonization by humans.

Curiosity will not only send thousands of images but is also equipped with 10 highly sophisticated science instrument such as high-tech lasers that are able to check the composition of rocks on Mars from a distance.

Robotic arms will be used to take soil samples and these samples will be then analyzed by analytical instruments located inside the rover.

There have already been some indicators suggesting that Mars used to have water on its surface. Will Curiosity finally provide us with enough proof about the wet history of the Red Planet? This, and many other questions, are still waiting to be answered.

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Mars is not a good place to start our space colonization?

Human population is constantly growing which will in business as usual scenario lead to overpopulation of our planet and need to search for new habitable planets and new Super Earths. If we were to judge by many of Sci-fi movies and literature Mars would be the perfect candidate to start the human space colonization but sadly the reality suggests something completely different.

Several recent studies showed that Mars has an abundance of ice which has led to a theory that the Martian soil may have what it takes to support life, namely the liquid water. In order to make conclusion whether Mars is habitable or not the scientists have spent three years analyzing data on Martian soil and the final result was not positive.

The scientists have concluded that Red Planet is too hostile for any life to survive on the planet's surface because of the super-drought that has kept Mars in arid state for more than 600 million years.

There is also a very interesting theory that Mars may have had a warmer and wetter period in its earlier history more than three billion years ago. The researchers have confirmed this and have discovered that the Mars has been exposed to liquid water for at most 5,000 years since its formation billions of years ago.

The soil on Mars is uniform across the entire planet as was shown by satellite imagery and previous studies which draws the conclusion that the liquid water has been on the surface of Mars for far too short a time for life to develop on its surface.

Some believe that the proof of previous life on Mars can still be found underground the surface and it is expected that future NASA studies will focus on Mars’ underground in search for evidence of previous life on Red Planet.

The extreme aridity of Mars makes future colonization of Red Planet impossible, at least when judging by today's standards. So far Mars definitely doesn't seem to be having any similarities with the new Super Earth. Nonetheless, the quest for life on other planets is still on.

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Fascinating science facts about Mars

Mars has extremely low temperatures, and frequent out of this world dust storms that are the biggest in our Solar system.

Martian dust storms occur every two to four Mars years are so powerful that they can cover the whole planet with dust for months.

In winter, the temperatures at the Mars' poles can go down to -140°C (-220 degrees Fahrenheit), these temperatures are so called that even carbon dioxide freezes.

The most difficult problem to any future human mission to Mars is to ensure reliable radio communication because Sun often blocks communication between Earth and Mars.

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