It’s a timeless question — is there life out there beyond just us here on Mars? If there is when will we finally learn more about it? It seems as though life on Mars is definitely a possibility.
According to the New York Post, an astrophysicist named Sarah Cruddas believes proof of life on Mars could come in about 20 years. Through various studies, scientists have already found out a lot about the planet. Specifically, that there are clues of early life being present on the planet. Compared to what it is now, Mars was once believed to be wetter and warmer, meaning it could have certainly sustained human life.
One of the large craters on the planet was once thought to be a body of water, for example. The rover named Perseverance is currently on Mars taking samples and exploring the planet. It will take these samples aside until 2028 when a retrieval craft will take them back to Earth.
In many ways, some people think that there has to be more life out there.
“When you look at the numbers, it’s likely that we’re not alone in the universe. We know Mars has been warmer and wetter, so has the conditions for microbial life, which is single cell organisms. We just haven’t been able to prove it yet. Whether it is microbial life or something beyond explanation is yet to be seen. But once we have an answer, we can then extrapolate that to work out how much life might actually be out there,” Cruddas said to the Daily Star.
For some, including Cruddas, they believe that “alien civilizations” could be more advanced and may even know about life here on Earth. That is all part of a grander conspiracy theory related to life outside of Earth that currently has no scientific backing available to the public.
Recent Issue for the NASA Perseverance Rover
It seems as though Mars may be fighting back against our mission to learn more about the fascinating planet.
According to CNET, the rover has debris caked onto the rock sample collection system that can cause some problems. In the past, the rover has gone through issues with the terrain and dust causing a disturbance in its probes and wheels as well.
I recently captured my sixth rock core and have encountered a new challenge. Seems some pebble-sized debris is obstructing my robotic arm from handing off the tube for sealing/storage. More images and data to come. #SamplingMars takes perseverance.
— NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) January 8, 2022
Blog: https://t.co/flabIslR21 pic.twitter.com/sfaxuu0HNG
“However, during the transfer of the bit that contains the sample into the rover’s bit carousel (which stores bits and passes tubes to the tube processing hardware inside the rover), our sensors indicated an anomaly,” wrote Louise Jandura, a chief engineer for sampling and caching. This debris got caught on the rover after it drilled into a rock named Issole.
Now, the rover’s robotic arm cannot properly hand off sample-filled tubes for storage. This could slow down the rover’s hunt for microbial life on the planet.
