Individual Assignment 2

Matric No.

: 1223993

Name

: Mohamad Faruq bin Mohd Radzuan

Group No.

: 13

Title

: Life on Mars

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been trying to search any
signs of life on Mars since a long time ago. The Viking Program was one of the attempts of
NASA to search for evidences of life on Mars. NASA sent two space probes named Viking 1 and
Viking 2 for the program in 1976 for three goals, to capture high-resolution image of the red
planets surface, to examine the surface and atmosphere and to search for sign of life. Although
the Viking Mission Labeled Release Life Detection Experiment (LR) was positive, indicative of
Martian microbial metabolism, scientists reacted with caution, primarily because the Viking
organic analysis instrument found no organic matter[1]. LR experiment was undergone by
mixing the Mars soil with water and any microorganism will react and releasing either carbon
dioxide, or methane gas. The mission failed to deny any suggestion that there is life on Mars but
there have been no organic matter to prove it.
After Viking program, NASA has been trying to discover any potential habitats of extinct
or extant life by new approach; follow the water[1]. This exploration strategy was implied
because the analysis of the atmosphere reporting the absence of methane and formaldehyde. The
strategy also targeting any signs from life from the past life supporting the theory that Mars was
once much alike Earth 3.8-3.5 billion years ago. If Mars was once vivid like Earth, it is open to
possibilities that human will one day inhabit this planet.
After decades, NASA in its website has confirmed that they have found water source on
the Mars surface. New findings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the
strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars[4]. This
massive finding is very crucial since it takes so many years and so many missions to Mars and to
realizing the dream to make Mars inhabitable for human in the future. However, Mars today is
still known with cold dry environment and is subject to intense ultraviolet (UV) radiation and is
shrouded with superoxide iron which is fatal[2].
To achieve that dream, NASAs Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate
(HEOMD) and Science Mission Directorate (SMD) collaborate for on-going development for
Mars Exploration Program of robotic vehicles in orbit and on the surface of Mars with utilization
of in situ resources to make the entire exploration process more sustainable. Both of these
Directorates have a significant interest in this process as these candidate locations will be used

by NASA as part of a multi-year effort to determine where and how humans could explore Mars.
In the near term this process includes: (a) identifying locations that would optimize the
discoveries for next mission, (b) determine locations with the potential for resources required to
support humans, (c) developing new technology needed by future explorers to conduct
operations within a candidate location, and (d) identifying key characteristics of the proposed
candidate locations that cannot be evaluated using precursor data sets, thus helping to define
existing measurements needed in advance of human missions[3]. All these objectives set to
achieve in the near future proved that the possibilities that Mars is inhabitable by human is high
in the future.

References:
[1]

G. V. Levin, J. D. Miller, P. A. Straat, R. A. Lodder, and R. B. Hoover, Detecting life and

biology-related parameters on Mars, IEEE Aerosp. Conf. Proc., vol. 4908, 2007.

[2]

G. T. Anderson, E. W. Tunstel, and E. W. Wilson, Robot system to search for signs of life
on mars, IEEE Aerosp. Electron. Syst. Mag., vol. 22, no. 12, pp. 2330, 2007.

[3]

B. Bussey and S. J. Hoffman, Human Mars landing site and impacts on Mars surface
operations, IEEE Aerosp. Conf. Proc., vol. 2016June, 2016.

[4]

G. Anderson, "NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Todays Mars",
NASA, 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirmsevidence-that-liquid-water-flows-on-today-s-mars. [Accessed: 06- Oct- 2016].