Life on Mars: Expert ‘quietly confident’ Perseverance will dig up evidence of ancient life

NASA's Perseverance rover: Experts discuss Mars landing

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The age-old question of are we alone in the Universe may finally be answered thanks to the work of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. And though scientists are not looking to find little green men anytime soon, there is a good chance simple, microbial life was once present on Mars. NASA’s Perseverance rover will search for evidence of this life in the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater, with touchdown scheduled for Thursday, February 18.

If the rover’s autonomous landing sequence, which has been dubbed the “seven minutes terror”, goes according to plan, Perseverance will spend at least one Martian year exploring the ancient impact crater.

Jezero is of particular interest to scientists because the crater is believed to have once been filled with water – and where there is water, scientists expect to find possible signs of life.

During its mission, Perseverance will also collect and store samples of rock and soil for a future retrieval mission.

NASA has partnered with the European Space Agency (ESA) to return these samples to Earth in the 2030s – samples one expert called the most important rocks collected since the Apollo Moon landings.

But why are scientists looking for evidence of past life, and not present indicators of extraterrestrial activity?

According to Professor Caroline Smith, the head of Earth Sciences collections at the Natural History Museum, the planet is simply too inhospitable for life as we know it to thrive.

Mars is virtually bone-dry, freezing cold and lashed with intense radiation.

If any life has survived in these conditions, some scientists speculate it may found deep under the planet’s surface.

Professor Smith is a member of the science team that will investigate the rocks samples collected by Perseverance.

She told Express.co.uk: “Perseverance isn’t strictly looking for signs of present life on Mars, the current environment of Mars is very inhospitable for life – it is cold, very dry and its thin atmosphere and lack of magnetic field means that the surface of the planet is bombarded with UV-rays and radiation from space.

“If life exists on Mars today it is likely to be deep within the crust, where the conditions might be more conducive for a habitable environment.”

Instead, the Mars 2020 mission is focused on finding fossilised evidence of microbial life.

Such evidence may have been left behind 3.5 to 4 billion years ago when Mars resembled a young Earth.

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Scientists believe the Red Planet once boasted a hot and humid atmosphere, lakes and oceans, and conditions conducive for life to start and even thrive for some time.

Professor Smith said: “You never know, Perseverance might find signs of current life but I think this is very unlikely, however, I am quietly confident that it will find evidence of ancient life on Mars, which will make the return of the samples it collects extremely exciting.”

Before all of this happens, however, Perseverance will need to survive its descent through the planet’s atmosphere.

The rover will dive towards the planet’s surface at speeds of about 12,000mph.

Perseverance will at first be slowed down by its protective heatshield and later a giant supersonic parachute – the largest parachute NASA has ever sent to Mars.

The last stage of the rover’s descent will make use of the Skycrane – a jetpack-like device armed with eight thrusters.

Once Skycrane slows down to about 1.7mph, the device will lower the six-wheeled rover to the surface on cables.

Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, called the landing site in Jezero Crater the “most challenging Martian terrain ever targeted”.

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