Mars today is a very dry place, much like some desert or volcanic plains on Earth. The atmosphere is not a comfortable one for humans, being that the surface temperature averages well below freezing, as well as the low atmospheric pressure resulting in very thin air where humans would not be able to survive for more than a few minutes. There is also very damaging ultraviolet radiation. The conditions may seem harsh, but in fact the moon has much more extreme conditions. Therefore, it is easy to imagine astronauts exploring and researching on Mars in the future.
Yes! There are forms of water on Mars. There is often times water vapor and ice crystals in the atmosphere, sometimes forming clouds. There is also evidence of water ice in the north polar cap. Observations from the Mars Odyssey instruments suggest that there may be water ice frozen into the surface soil on Mars. But the water that we are interested in is liquid water. Liquid water is one of the three necessities for life, including a source of energy and organic material. These ingredients are necessary but not always sufficient, but finding liquid water or evidence of it can push us forward in the search for or evidence of life on mars. The picture shown above is an example of some of the evidence found that suggests that there was once running liquid water on Mars. Critics, for example, Nick Hoffman, argue that the features on Mars are not formed by liquid water but by "cold, dry eruptions of gas, dust and rock, fueled by exploding liquid carbon dioxide"(Reader 69). Although we do not know for sure if there were large bodies of liquid water on Mars, there is a lot of evidence that convinces many people to believe that Mars, in the past, was very similar to the early stages of Earth. Mars has had many successful missions, many failed missions and many more missions to come. Mars is the most studied planet in our solar system, yet there is so much more to find and research.
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