Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Mars holds tight its secrets, including the prospect of being a present-day abode for life. Will hauling back samples from Mars seal the deal regarding life on the Red Planet?
Image credit: NASA

While the clamoring to bring bits and pieces of Mars back to Earth for an intensive look-see continues, scientists are also devising instruments and techniques that can be sent to the Red Planet to perform on-the-spot probes for life.

But could these low-cost approaches usurp the early need for samples shot directly from Mars?

Carl Sagan stands by Viking Mars lander model in desert location. His call continues to ring true that “extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence.”
Image credit: NASA

That option brings to mind the comment from Marcel Proust – a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel In Search of Lost Time: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

For a detailed look at the issues involved, go to my new Space.com story – “If life exists on Mars, don’t count on sample-return missions to find it, scientists say” – at:

https://www.space.com/mars-search-for-life-sample-return-tension