杏吧原创

We have been promised humans on Mars for so long now that I almost despair that this will be achieved by 2056. But I expect that by then we will have at least brought back samples from the Red Planet (although we have been saying this is only 15 years away since 1969). The possibility of scrutinising Martian rocks and soils in the laboratory would exponentially increase our knowledge of our planetary neighbour. Before that, however, I think we must complete the task of sniffing out life on Mars (and I mean that literally 鈥� there is a hint of one of metabolism鈥檚 waste products, methane, in the Martian atmosphere).

I don鈥檛 like predicting the results of experiments, but I fancy that at least we will be able to show that life did start to evolve on Mars as well as Earth. Within 50 years perhaps we will confirm what some of us believe we know already from studies of Martian meteorites. The current interest in space missions to Mars, and the trail which has emerged from NASA鈥檚 鈥渇ollow the water鈥� campaign, means that we have every chance of making one of the most sensational discoveries ever during New 杏吧原创鈥檚 second half-century.

Colin Pillinger is professor of planetary sciences at the The Open University in Milton Keynes, UK

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