The questions I get asked most often are “Why is planetary exploration important?”, ”Why is there such a focus on Mars and not other planets?” or “Does this matter at all in our daily lives?” The discovery of liquid water, the understanding of its geological past or even the finding of extra-terrestrial micro-organisms are facts that improve our scientific knowledge and give us valuable insights to our own planet. I believe that one day, maybe not too far away, we will find that lost water on Mars that we will use for the colonization of the planet, however, for now, the most important reason for Mars exploration is that it is taking that crucial step towards understanding ourselves. The question is whether we, here on Earth, our Solar System, the Milky Way and maybe far beyond, are the only ones alive. I believe space exploration always encourages a deep look at ourselves, where do we come from, what are we doing here and how we are treating our own planet. That is what is really important. Mars just happens to be the easiest and closest planet to explore.
However, equally satisfying to understanding ourselves is the pleasure and beauty of exploring such a planet. Two incredible findings have been my motivation in the last years to continue researching Mars; First, the NASA’s Opportunity rover, sent to the Red Planet to “follow the water” in 2003, found plenty of evidence that liquid water was flowing at some point during Martian history. Second, researchers from the European Mars Express mission announced the detection of methane in the Martian atmosphere. Although the amounts were small, the excitement about the source of the methane continues even today. Atmospheric methane on Mars is lost very quickly, meaning that there has to be a continuous source that still recharges it. Methane is a chemical compound that is attributed to living organisms, and thus its detection indicates a potential chemical trace of life’s presence on Mars. This was the first clue to suspect that Mars may have harbored life, and although the amounts are small and all ideas speculative, we might now be one step closer to finding extraterrestrial life on Mars.
The achievements accomplished in the last few years regarding Mars exploration are tremendous. We have lots of scientific evidence that prove we are closer to Mars than ever before, our knowledge in chemistry, biology, geology and engineering has expanded to new limits that have never been achieved before. This is definitely the best time to be a Mars explorer!
