Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Conceptual artwork of VALKYRIE (Volatiles And Life: Key Reconnaissance & In-situ Exploration) Mars lander.
Credit: JPL/Corby Waste

Enigmatic Mars has been taunting researchers for decades as to whether or not the Red Planet has been – or is today — an abode for life.

Multiple nations are readying spacecraft for launching to Mars in 2020 (China, Europe, United States, the UAE) drawn once again to help unravel the complexities of that world and tease out clues as to whether or not it could be an extraterrestrial habitat for life.

“Small High Impact Energy Landing Device” (SHIELD), a new way to inexpensively bring small payloads to the Martian surface.
Credit: JPL/Corby Waste

NASA has called for a set of Mars exploration concepts in addition to, or after, robotically returning Martian specimens to Earth. A Mars Architecture Strategy Working Group is charting a wide range of new missions, covering a decade and a half in terms of time period.

There is active interest in continuing the search for “extant” — currently existing — life on Mars. But that pursuit demands new scientific concepts and understandings keyed to where to explore and what to measure.

For more information, please read my new SpaceNews story: “A New Look for Life on Mars” in the December 23, 2019 issue, pp 22-24.