Life on Mars: Advanced Cameras, Telescopes, and Space Exploration Provide Insight

The discovery of extraterrestrial life would be one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time. With roughly 70% of the American public believing in the existence of alien life, the search for life on other planets has become a major goal of many space programs. The discovery of fossilized micro-bacterial life in a portion of a meteorite from Mars is the most significant discovery thus far and provides scientists and researchers a reason to keep looking. The milestone discovery proves that Mars once held life and could possibly still support life. Evidence gathered from Mars Rovers even points to the fact that Mars used to be a very wet planet. With water being the primary need to support life, this leaves many questions unanswered. Was there life on Mars? Is there still life on Mars? With research and exploration growing there's even the possibility of human life existing on Mars in the future. For more in depth information on the search for viable life on Mars, look to the following resources.

Organizations Dedicated to Researching Life on Mars

• NASA Center for Mars Exploration: View concept maps, atlases, calendars and images of Mars.
• The Planetary society: The Planetary Society is centered on exploring planets and providing education resources for space exploration.
• SETI Institute: This institute is dedicated to exploring, understanding, and explaining life in the universe.
• The Mars Society: The Mars Society specifically is focused on the settlement and exploration of Mars.
• The Mars Institute: The Mars Institute is centered on promoting education, research, and exploration of the Red planet.
• Mars Anomaly Research Society: This research organization focuses on protecting the ecology and civilization of Mars.
• Astrobiology Society: The society is dedicated to researching and investigating whether there may be life on other planets.
• The Universities Space Research Association: The association is dedicated to research and exploring space.
• Life on Mars: The Royal Society offers video, maps of the surface of Mars and information on it research of life on Mars project.

Evidence and Theories of Life of Mars

• Life on Mars?: A look at evidence of life on Mars from the Antarctic meteorite.
• Strong Evidence: This paper investigates the evidence of British scientist findings of primitive life on Mars.
• Is there life on Mars? An astronomer for kids answers that there is no evidence of life on Mars.
• Archaebacteria: Explores whether cells of any kind could survive on Mars.
• Meteorite Yields Evidence: A release that shows that a meteorite may help prove there was life on Mars in prehistoric times.
• Evidence of Past Life on Mars: Hubert Yockey investigated whether there is life on Mars.
• No Signs of Life: This article examines NASA’s exploration of Mars in 1998 and that evidence of life was discovered.
• Ancient Life: Slides that explore ancient life on Mars.
• Genetics: Research on detecting extraterrestrial genomes on Mars.

Technology Used in Mars Missions and Fact

• The Hubble: A discovery of Mars opposite sides in 2003 by the Hubble telescope.
• Mars Pathfinder: Explains what the Mars Pathfinder is and describes its objectives and mission operations.
• Mars Global Surveyor: A gallery of images of the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter.
• Sojourner Rover: The Robot Hall Of Fame provides information on the 1993 Sojourner Rover.
• The Satellite Phobos: History of the satellite Phobos.
• Deimos: A brief description of the satellite Deimos.
• Mars Pathfinder Images: Images and animations from the Pathfinder Rover.
• Robotic Scientist: View pictures, web casts and explore the Mars Exploration Rovers.

Past and Future Missions to Mars

• Mission to Mars: Just for kids. A great way for kids to learn about the Spirit and Opportunity Rovers.
• Phoenix Mars Mission: This site of the University of Arizona focuses on the mission of the Phoenix Mars Lander.
• Mars Odyssey Mission: About the Odyssey mission in 2001 and the Thermal Emission Imaging System on board the Odyssey.
• Maven: The Maven mission is a future exploration of Mars upper atmosphere set for 2013.
• Mariner IV: Observations and theories of the first mission to Mars.
• Mars Missions: Learn about past and present Mars missions.
• Mars Climate Orbiter Failure: 34 slides describing the failure of the Mars Climate Orbiter.

Educator Materials

• The Planet Mars: This module shows the exploration of Mars.
• Life on Mars WebQuest: A Web quest for middle school students to investigate Mars.
• Exploring Mars: The National Air and Space Museum explores all the fundamentals of Mars.
• Mars: A brief description of the planet Mars with data from over the years.
• Interactive Lessons: Interactive lessons comparing the similarities and differences of Earth and Mars.
• Mars Landform Identification: An activity for students to classify features of Mars from photographs.
• The Bringer of War: Statistics and observation of Mars.

This article was written by Mike Haldas, co-founder and managing partner of CCTV Camera Pros. If you found it useful, please share it.