See this at: amarsodyssey.com| Added on 09/05/07

To successfully find life that may or may not be as we recognize it, is the key to developing any strategy for finding life y... See more

To successfully find life that may or may not be as we recognize it, is the key to developing any strategy for finding life yet still considering the mission a success. What NASA is doing now is sending out “feelers” in order to find imprints—biomarkers or biosignatures—through fields of geology or chemistry if they have not yet been destroyed by time and its processes. Phoenix will gather samples on Mars when it lands next May of 2008, which will begin on the highest/lowest areas on the Martian surfaces, going to multiple locations, such as the two Mars rovers. The purpose of pre-selecting or identifying such samples that are considered high-priority, can also be sub-sampled to increase their detection. The reason the first solar target has been Mars for the NASA robotic exploration and searching for life is that it is the most similar to Earth than all the planets and stars of the solar system. In addition, there is evidence of liquid water on the red planet with the Mars Global... See less