Scientists Practice Mars Drilling Near Acidic Spanish River

Posted by tourdemars to Life on Mars at September 22, 2003 12:00 PM

To develop techniques to drill into the surface of Mars to look for signs of life, NASA and Spanish scientists recently began drilling 150 meters (495 feet) into the ground near the source of the waters of the Rio Tinto, a river in southwestern Spain, part of a three-year effort that will include the search for underground life forms. During the Mars Analog Research and Technology Experiment (MARTE), scientists and engineers from NASA, U.S. universities and the Spanish Centro De Astrobiología (Center for Astrobiology) hope to show how robot systems could look for life below Mars' surface. Scientists believe that liquid water may exist deep underground on Mars.