The search for life on Mars has been the mission statement of almost every robotic probe we humans have sent to the Red Planet. Ironically we may be bringing life to Mars on board one of these unmanned spacecraft despite all our precautions. This is a major concern for exobiologists w

By the end of 2012 Mars will have many human-built robots on its surface, in orbit around it, some artifacts and some operational. In our last blog we talked about the compelling question we are trying to get the answers to in visiting Mars. What is our ultimate goal? Is it creating a

The state of our exploration of Mars can be described as follows: We are still wrestling with the results of experiments done by the two Viking landers that visited Mars in 1976. We are fascinated by the numerous detailed images our robotic orbiters have taken of the planet’s su

Two headlines appeared in papers published on April 12 and 13 this year. One stated “Life on Mars Discovered from Decades Old Data” and the other used this headline, “NASA robots found life on Mars in 1976, scientists say.” In 1976 the United States Viking-1 an

Mars has always been less a mystery to astronomers than Venus. Through Earth-based telescopes the surface of the planet can easily be seen showing seasonal colour changes and  from time to time a shrouded look from dust temporarily suspended in the atmosphere because of storms. In the