Several Mars missions have been conducted and planned so far in search of life. While is is still not clear whether the red planet could actually support humans, the US President Barack Obama believes that humans should go to Mars to make things and lives better on Earth.
Mars has always been the first choice of scientists, astronomers and alien hunters when it comes to searching for extraterrestrial life or evidence of whether the planet can support life at all. An experimental mission to Mars has already been planned by the US as the country plans to carry two humans to the red planet before 2030s to check whether it can act as a back-up Earth.
The eminent physicist Stephen Hawking once said that human species would not last for more than a thousand years, if they do not establish their footsteps into space. In a way, it means that humans would soon need a back-up Earth to sustain them, especially considering the rate at which the environment on Earth is getting degraded.
However, it is still unclear whether humans will actually be able to transform Mars to support human life when they cannot even make Earth continue to sustain humans, San Francisco Chronicle reports. According to Margaret R. McLean of the Santa Clara University, humans who wish to travel to Mars must follow some guidelines before they invade Mars.
First, Mars should be valued as a planet by itself and not as a back-up Earth. Secondly, humans should preserve Martian resources as they will be held responsible for whatever changes their actions have on the extraterrestrial environment. Lastly, Martial resources should only be looked forward to if there is no other option left to support humans.
Meanwhile, a space probe launched by the European Space Agency has initiated its three-day hunt for the search of extraterrestrial intelligent life, according to Daily Mail. The probe will take almost three days to descend to the surface of the red planet and collect samples to bring back on Earth.
