The Search for Life From Planets to Silicon Chips

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Researchers Claim Evidence of Past Life on Mars

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Take a Trip to Mars and Beyond

VIKING SCIENTIST CLAIMS DETECTION OF LIFE ON MARS

Pathfinder Data and Pictures Said to be Consistent with Claims

NASA Rovers	Space.com	HobbySpace	Mars Society Movie
Red Planet Rovers	The Viking Labeled Release Life Detection Experiment	Science Fiction Resources for Readers on Mars	Space Daily
Images Stir Life on Mars Debate	The Whole Mars Catalog	The Astrobiology Index	Mars Daily
A Crewed Mission to Mars...	Hubblesite	Terraforming Mars Space.com Terraforming	Astrobiology Magazine
Views of the Solar System	The Tribbles Mission	Mars-The Early Years (Viking Experiments)	Solar System Exploration
Mars Underground: Digging Deep for Life	Mars Quest Online	Mars Links and Resources	The Mars Society
EOS Education Program	NASA Astrobiology	Water and Implications	Astrobiology.com
Marsweb	Levin-Life On Mars	Mars & Solar Wind	NASA Haughton-Mars Project
Titan: A World of Its Own	European Space Agency Portal	Huygens on Titan	Cassini - Huygens Mission to Saturn & Titan

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Mars An Introduction Mars Exploration Mars Global Surveyor MARS ODYSSEY	This is the STARTING POINT for a voyage of discovery that only "The Web" can supply. The excitement is almost palpable as we surf the Solar System and Universe in search of adventure. Read and learn as much as you can. Mars will be our second home one day. Mars is the most Earth-like other world known, and with the two planets on the verge of their closest approach in recorded history, it's time for the planets to weigh in. In this tale of the tape, we present the most pertinent and interesting facts that compare and contrast the two very different worlds. The Mars Exploration site operated by NASA has links to any pertinent information concerning the Red Planet. The Mars Global Surveyor has been and continues to be one of NASA's biggest success stories. With it camera from Malin Scientific sending back images daily, the Surveyor produces the most relavant data of any of the mission robots that have been depolyed thus far. Here's the NASA site that is following the current Mars Odyssey Mission. Examine the latest data and pictures as the orbiter studies the Martian surface for its chemical composition, the possibility of subsurface water and measures the radiation levels.
Reports on the Mars Lander Missions from Space.com	Dr. Charles Elachi, director of the National Aeronauticsand Space Administration's (NASA (news - web sites)) Jet Propulsion Lab, said final preparations were underway with one 'exploration rover' arriving at Cape Canaveral this week and the second due in three weeks. He said the rovers, which are the size of an office desk, were set to be launched on May 30 and June 25, piggy-backing on two rockets then parachuting down to Mars in January in an air-bag cushioned landing. Spirit Lands Successfully! "What a night," said Steve Squyres, Principal Investigator for Spirit from Cornell University. "Spirit has shown us her new home, Gusev Crater. It's a glorious place…a wonderful place from a science perspective," he said in a midnight press event at JPL.  The NASA Mars Exploration Program The NASA Mars Rover Mission NASA's twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers, launched toward Mars on June 10 and July 7, 2003, in search of answers about the history of water on Mars. Primary among the mission's scientific goals is to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars. The spacecraft have landed on sites on opposite sides of Mars that appear to have been affected by liquid water in the past. The landing sites are at Gusev Crater, a possible former lake in a giant impact crater, and Meridiani Planum, where mineral deposits (hematite) suggest Mars had a wet past. Mars Rover Mission-The Science The big science question for the Mars Exploration Rovers is how past water activity on Mars has influenced the red planet's environment over time. While there is no liquid water on the surface of Mars today, the record of past water activity on Mars can be found in the rocks, minerals, and geologic landforms, particularly in those that can only form in the presence of water. That's why the rovers are specially equipped with tools to study a diverse collection of rocks and soils that may hold clues to past water activity on Mars. Mars-Dead or Alive! The NOVA program that examines the Rover mission successful landing and the events that lead up to it. Spaceflight Now
Astrobiology	Rather then my explain this site I'll let the author's words entice you to visit the treasures here. "I have organized things a bit differently and blended some topics together which you won't normally find in a space- or biology-related website. This comes from my view that understanding what may lay out there starts with understanding the intricacies of life here on earth. ....I have been captivated by space exploration since I was in grammar school which included a mysterious recuring illness that seemed to coincide with space missions. Like everyone, my world view is a product of many early influences. Two of them, at the age of 12, are most notable: reading (as best I could) I.S.Shklovskii and Carl Sagan's "Intelligent Life in the Universe" and seeing/reading Stanley Kubric and Arthur C. Clarke's " 2001: A Space Odyssey ". Over the ensuing three decades, their books and TV shows have made a continual impression upon me. If you think you see the influence of these guys upon anything in this website you are not at all mistaken." How does life begin and evolve? Is there life elsewhere in the Universe? What is the future of life on Earth and beyond? NAI carries out collaborative research and education in astrobiology, the interdisciplinary science that seeks answers to these fundamental questions. It supports investigation of these issues on Earth and serves as a portal to space for the scientific community. "The NAI arrives at an exciting time for the study of life in the universe. Advances in scientific knowledge and technical capability over the past decade have yielded dramatic new knowledge about the origin, distribution, and destiny of life. We have analyzed complex organic chemistry in interstellar clouds of gas and dust and have discovered almost 70 planets outside of our solar system. Life on Earth has been found thriving at environmental extremes such as in Antarctic rocks, boiling hot springs, and aquifers buried kilometers below the land surface. We have found that liquid water, the one essential ingredient for life as we know it, once flowed on the surface of the planet Mars and probably exists today below the icy crust of Jupiter's moon, Europa. Life on Earth has been traced back 3.8 billion years to the period of heavy cometary bombardment, an era that simultaneously brought life-giving water and organic compounds to the terrestrial planets while battering them with lethal quantities of impact energy. We are discovering both the fragility and robustness of life, as we investigate the history of mass extinctions on our planet (including extinctions taking place today), the subtle alterations in climate triggered by volcanic eruptions and human industry, and the destruction of our protective shield of ozone. While we celebrate the ability of astronauts to live and work and achieve wonderful feats of engineering in space, we ponder the implications of baffling physiological and chemical changes induced by the space environment. We are only beginning to probe the adaptability of life to conditions beyond our home planet Earth. " - Scripps Research Institute Lead Team
The Mars Exploration Homepage	NASA's Mars Exploration site is for students and teachers to learn about the Red Planet. Everything from an Overview of the planet to great pictures of Mars are available here. You'll find the present and future Mars missions just a click away. Journey to Mars Guide and Resources is a PBS site that has streaming video from the Scientific American Presentation on a Journey to Mars. Will a human mission to the planet Mars ever become a reality? In this Scientific American Frontiers special, host Alan Alda explores this question with the space scientists and aerospace engineers helping to make it happen. Find out how a Mars mission can be affordably accomplished and why it's so important to explore the "red planet" in the first place. And, watch Alan try out some of the tools currently being developed by NASA to make life in space less traumatic for the astronauts who will someday make this historic journey!
The Nine Planets A Multimedia Tour of the Solar System Views of the Solar System	"The Nine Planets is an overview of the history, mythology, and current scientific knowledge of each of the planets and moons in our solar system.Each page has text and images, some have sounds and movies, most provide references to additional related information. Interplanetary spacecraft have revolutionized planetary science. Very little of thse sites would have been possible without the space program."
THE PLANETARY SOCIETY	THE PLANETARY SOCIETY is a group of individuals who support NASA's Space Programs and encourage our Government to adequately fund all Mars related activities. Maybe you would like to join them?
Mars Interface The "Face on Mars" Strange Mars Mars Unearthed The Cydonia Imperative	This Malin Space Sciences site contains a background on this controversial subject and a recent upgrade of the pictures of Cydonia by the Mars Observer Camera. Fascinating! The controversies continue with more pictures from Malin Scientific of Strange Mars images. On this same page their is commentary from none other than Arthur Clark commenting: "... that something on the red planet is changing with the seasons. Some of the Mars images can only be reasonably interpreted in terms of vegetation, he said." Mars Unearthed is a site devoted to comparisons of the MOC and earth images as possible indicators of lifeforms. The Cydonia Imperative is an independent effort to assess possible extraterrestrial artifacts on Mars . There isn't much more I can say here. It is what it is!
National Geographic Return to Mars A Mars Never Dreamed Of... Eye in the Sky-Mars	National Geographics' presentation on our return to Mars is spectacular. If you subscribe to the magazine or have a pair of old red-blue 3D glasses you can view the Sojourner pictures with depth. Either way it's well worth your time. As the Mars Global Surveyor beams home unprecedented images, our assumptions about the red planet explodeand we see A Mars Never Dreamed of ... The National Geographic presentation Eye in the Sky features Mars.
	The Mars Polar Lander was to test the soil of the Red Planet for traces of water and geology that might be indicative of life. Unfortunately, the Polar Lander was unsuccessful in establishing communications after its ascent to the planet. This is an important site to visit in order to understand the difficulties and inherent errors that make up our space program.
Mars Images from Malin Scientific	Malin Scientific Industries built the camera aboard the Mars Observer. The pictures it has been returning have revealed a new vision of Mars that has geologists scratching their heads and wondering if they have been examining the "wrong Mars."
Fossils on Mars? Water on Mars? Life on Mars?	If there are fossils on Mars, where would you find them?New graphics from Malin Scientific seem to support and confirm some of the earlier speculations about water on Mars. Check it out! Here's the latest evidence for water and possible life on Mars. Extremophiles are the earthly models for what may be alien relatives. Bacteria Frozen for 32,000 Years Still Alive The bacteria, called Carnobacterium pleistocenium
NASA Releases 25,000 Pictures of Mars	More than 25,000 images of Mars have been released on a public website by Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California.
Returning Martian Rock Samples to Earth	How will scientists deal with rock samples returned from Mars? Will we contaminate the Martian surface with our earth bugs and then discover "life" on Mars was a stowaway on the lander. Then...on the other hand...how do we deal with organisms from Mars when they are returned to earth? What type of containment facility should we have to house the soil and rock samples? The Quarantine and Certification of Martian Samples Past, Present and Future Missions to Mars
The Case for Mars	Next we search for information at the Homepage of one of the major supporting groups for the colonization and exploration of Mars. Their Homepage is a resource center in itself with links to almost every area of any consequence relative to the Red Planet.
Beagle 2 Mars Express-European Space Agency	The attack on Mars is underway! The Americans, Europeans and Japanese are robotically invading the Red Planet. In January, if everything works out, data will begin its return to earth. The Beagle Mission is in search of life and the other 'bots are after different information. It will be an exciting time. Follow it as the missions unfold.
Water and Implications	The Chemistry of Mars Water Once Filled Mars Opportunity Rover Landing Site Mars: A Water World? Evidence Mounts, But Scientists Remain Tight-Lipped More convincing were closer observations with two instruments on the rover arm, the Moessbauer and alpha particle X-ray spectrometers, as well as the mast-mounted miniature thermal emission spectrometer. Those devices found a pattern of salt deposition found in the slow evaporation of water. "This is a window into the past on Mars unlike anything that is happening today," Squyres said. Water is essential to life as we know it. Clark said the discovery, especially the sulfate deposits, could make the past existence of life on Mars very possible. "There are organisms that use sulfate as an energy source," he said. Roaming the Red Planet Evidence of Water Found on Mars Life in a Hydrothermal Vent ACID  MINE  DRAINAGE:  An Example of Microbial Ecology in Action  Life in the Universe Microbes in the Environment

Europa

Europa-A Continuing Story of Discovery	This NASA site contains a fact sheet on Europa the moon of Jupiter that has astronomers rethinking the differences between a planet and a moon. There appears to be an ocean lurking underneath the frozen surface of this moon and maybe the possibility of some interesting extraterrestrial chemistry.
Europa Orbiter	NASA plans a mission to Europa. You'll find the details at this site.
Europa-The Nine Planets	The Nine Planets site presents its data on the Jovian moon.

Ganymede

Ganymede Fact Sheet	NASA data on the Jovian moon. Larger then Mercury, this satellite of our Solar System's biggest planet would be a planet itself if it orbited the Sun. The frozen surface of this moon has astronomers thinking that maybe some life chemistry could be found there.
Ganymede-The Solar System's Largest Moon	Articles on Ganymede from the NASA site on Jupiter and its moons.
Ganymede	A fact sheet from the Solar Views site.
Ganymede-The Nine Planets	The Nine Planets information on Ganymede.
The Lunar and Planetary Institute	Ganymede from another perspective.

Artificial Life Digital Biota Internet of the Future What is Artificial Life? Why is Life trying to Enter Digital Space? Is Life Attempting to Evolve into Digital Environments?

The Complexity and Artificial Life Research Concept Complex Adaptive Systems and Artificial LIfe Avatars Biotians' Creatures Gallery Biota Live Links Neural Networks and Artificial Life MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Game AI Page The Game of Life Alife Games Kurzweil AI.net Hans Moravec

 

Reading Lists Here are lists of readings of interest on Mars, life on other planets, artificial life and esoterica related to questions of life. Amazon.com supplies the information through the links to the right. The management does not support, nor encourages the reader to buy any of these selections. However, there is no better source on the internet for synopsis and review of a work than Amazon. So, being the lazy cuss that I am, I will let them pique your imagination.

1. The On To Mars Reading List 2. Mars Resource Page from Biospherics