Posted by tourdemars to Life on Mars at March 23, 2004 09:21 AM

Sending one-way spacecraft to learn if life exists or has ever been resident on the red planet is a tall order – it’s been that way for decades. Today, powerful orbiters circle Mars. Meanwhile, wheeled robots traipse across that reddish globe’s time-weathered landscape. The results are telling: The planet is serving up teasing signals that life should have been welcomed there at some point in the past. Perhaps even now, hidden subsurface, martian biology might skulk in cozy and secure surroundings.