For years, planet Mars has been in the NASA spotlight. The Red Planet has been explored as images, atmoshpere samples and samples of various surface formations have been collected to continue research in labortories here on Earth. The year of 1965 marked the beginiing of the Mars Program, and ever since rocket born cameras, spacecraft voyages, and other advanced technologies have been a part of the explorations.
The Mars Program has been dedicated to finding what the planet experienced since the begininning of its formation as well as all it has to offer. Much debate has been raised about whether the program should be continued and if anything beneficial could even come out of the studies. Some argue that the funding should be cut and instead used to help relieve a portion of our nation's debt. However, what these critics don't understand is that the Mars Program is on a mission to answer a long lived question, "Could the planet Mars sustain life?" The question is complex, but it could lead to the answer of whether of not the Red Planet could be the future for humanity. NASA has been carefully conducting explorations and studies of Mars changes overtimes to find any signs of the presense of life's necessities. These include water, oxygen, and multicellular organisms. It is said that if any of these are found, Mars past can further be studied to see if its present conditions can be our future.
Currently, Earth is the only planet we know of that contains life and has the characteristics need to sustain it.
Some have suggested the possibilities of other planets being able to sustain life and scientiests have been questioning data thorougly to test the chances of another source of life on them. Perhaps these planets or masses are outside our solar system. They could lie thousands of light years away on a different side of the universe. However, Mars has been labled as a prospective planet that could sustain life. This theory has been