Is it possible that there is (or at least was) life on Mars? Martians might not actually be little green men, but they just might be little green microbes. NASA’s Perseverance rover may have stumbled upon the best evidence yet that Mars wasn’t always just a lifeless ball of space dust.
Perseverance was launched on July 30, 2020, and landed on Mars in February 2021 in the Jezero Crater. Its assignment? To search for signs of ancient life, study cool rocks, and cache samples to return to Earth. When it comes to space robots, Perseverance is a bit of an overachiever. It’s basically Indiana Jones on six wheels with a laser shooter. Anyhow, Perseverance made a discovery in the summer of 2024 in Jezero’s “river valley” rock (named Cheyava Falls, in case Mars geography is one of your special interests). The rock sample colors were red, purple, green, and blue, and the minerals were vivianite and greigite. Both of those minerals are linked with microbial processes on Earth, and scientists are celebrating. They’ve essentially found microbe graffiti, according to geologists, and where there is graffiti? There was life.
What these minerals mean to scientists are potential biosignatures. That basically translates to maybe life, but also maybe not. Microbes could have thrived in the chemistry that was available to them on Mars, or a non-biological process might just mimic it. There are no little fossils to hang pictures of on the fridge. Not yet, anyway. This is, however, the closest we’ve come to proving that there might have been life on the Red Planet.
This is the first time we’ve been this close to sniffing around ancient Martian life signs, but there are still many unknowns. NASA’s Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission hopes to bring Perseverance’s rock tubes back to Earth… eh, someday. Figuring out how to make that a reality is going to be a bit of a neat trick. The budget headache alone has scientists moving it to their “for later” list, and the technology is still in the works. It’d be done faster if scientists could go poke around Congressional couch cushions for spare change.
So why are we so earnest for life on Mars? Well, I don’t know about you, but I like the idea of maybe not being the only ones out there. Join me for a moment in dreaming, won’t you? What would it be like to have whole bubble cities on Mars a la The Jetsons? I know I’d rather commute by flying than driving, and what kind of HOA complaints would we have to deal with when our backyards are frozen deserts?
It’s fun to think about living that Star Trek life, but that’s not really the point here. Perseverance is playing a crucial role in rewriting our cosmic story. Sure, it’s just the scientist version of reading someone else’s diary and hoping for details… but Perseverance found the diary! Even a hint of ancient Martian life changes how we think about our own uniqueness in the universe.
So… perhaps life on Mars? That’s yet to be determined, but if the microbes are actually a sign of life, we’ll need to be sure to be polite neighbors. In the meantime, Perseverance is gonna keep doing the work, and we’ll all keep dreaming of maybe someday being able to wake up at home on the Red Planet.
