Strong Evidence of Life in Ancient Lake at Mars Gale Crater

Scientists at NASA's Mars Science Laboratory have discovered evidence of an ancient lake on Mars that they believe may have supported life billions of years ago.

Using the Mars rover Curiosity, they analysed sedimentary rocks at Yellowknife Bay in the Gale Crater. Evidence from the analysis suggest that the site had at least one lake around 3.6 billion years ago. The analysis showed that the lake likely had fresh water and elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur which are suitable in sustaining life.

Compared to other previous Mars rovers, Curiosity is two times longer and five times heavier than the others. It carried equipment to gather samples of rocks and soil, process them and distribute them to onboard test chambers inside analytical instruments.

The Gale Crater, a depression made by an asteroid or comet billions of years ago, was the main target of Curiosity as it is believed to be made up of ancient sediment deposited when Mars still had abundant water at its surface.

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For quite some time, Mars has been a hot topic when it comes to sending humans into outer space. Just recently, NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover landed on Mars and have been taking tests of the surface of the planet. It has even picked up what might possibly be evidence of water on Mars.

Travelling to Mars takes lots of preparation. For one, there are only four windows of opportunity that cycles every fifteen years to require the least amount of energy to transfer from an Earth orbit to the Mars orbit.

The next window for a low energy orbit transfer would occur in 2018.

It would take roughly 250 days to travel from the Earth to Mars. During the trip, astronauts are exposed to dangerous cosmic radiation, space debris, a zero gravity environment and even psychological effects from prolonged isolation.

The United States delayed its plan to send astronauts to Mars by 2020. Instead, the plan is to send a manned mission to an asteroid in 2025 and plan for a Mars trip by 2030.

Mars One, a private endeavor to set up a human colony on Mars led by Dutch entrepreneur, Bas Lansdorp, was announced on June 2012. The project's plan is to land humans on Mars to establish a permanent settlement in 2023. A new set of four astronauts would then arrive every two years.

Mars One is set up to be a one way trip to Mars for the astronauts.

NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Lands Successfully At Mars Gale Crater

Credit: NASA/JPL

The Curiosity Rover, also called the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), landed successfully in Mars at the Gale Crater. It was reported to have landed in the crater near the planet's equator at 05:32 GMT.

Curiosity was designed to steer itself during the descent into Mars and through its atmosphere mimicking maneuvers done by NASA space shuttle astronauts called S-curve maneuvers.

A parachute, retro rocket and a "sky crane" then helps put Curiosity on the ground. The upper stage of the space craft acts as the sky crane lowering the upright rover on a tether to the surface.

The target site for Curiosity's landing is The Gale Crater.

Credit: BBC News/NASA/JPL

The Gale Crater

The Gale Crater is a depression made by an asteroid or comet billions of years ago. From the crater floor rises a huge mound of rock rising 5km. The mound of rock, named Mount Sharp, is believed to be made up of ancient sediments; some deposited when Mars still had abundant water at its surface.

From orbit, Mount Sharp looks like Australia. Gale is named after an Australian astronomer. That makes it an exciting place to consider the possibility that those distant times may also once have supported microbial life