6/23/00 2:25 p.m.
Life on Mars?
Mr. Taft, bring down that tax!

By John Farrell, writer and video producer in Boston

t may be time to rethink whether there's life on Mars.

No, I don't mean we have to stop snickering at web sites claiming there's a stone face on the surface of the Red Planet built by a race of ancient aliens (that's right, the very same ones who carved out the Old Man of the Mountain in New Hampshire...and the Flume if you've ever seen it, and the Polar Caves, and — oh yeah, the Pyramids in Egypt).

But the NASA Mars Global Surveyor has been getting excellent views of the Martian landscape, including grooved features that suggest relatively recent water flow. Recent, in this case, means a few thousands of years ago. Details of the discovery will be published next week in Science.

In one sense, this is no surprise. The poles of Mars are covered with ice and scientists have long believed that the planet, early in its history, may have had a much more friendly atmosphere than it does now.

But according to people familiar with the official report, speaking to the Washington Post, high-resolution pictures taken by the Global Surveyor clearly show channels and grooves on the inside walls of steep craters that suggest the downward flow of liquid water.

Check these out: this one and this one.

If this turns out to be true, a fascinating aspect of these findings is the possibility of water existing on the planet now, close to the surface rather than miles below, as some astronomers have speculated.

And where there's water, there's the possibility of life. Not ambulatory aliens, but perhaps microbes. Microbes, as various unpleasant environments here on earth have shown, can survive and even flourish in the most extreme conditions, as long as there is water.

According to today's (6/23) New York Times, Dr. Michael C. Malin, whose San Diego-based Malin Space Science Systems built the camera on board the Mars Global Surveyor, said, "We see features that look like gullies formed by flowing water and the deposits of soil and rocks transported by these flows." He added that the features seemed to be so new that they may still be forming today.

NASA's chief scientist, Dr. Edward J. Weiler, gave Trekkies reasons to cheer: "If life ever did develop there, and if it survives to the present time, then these landforms would be great places to look."

(Scotty! Beam us down!)

It's no news to space enthusiasts that NASA has been having a rough time lately when it comes to Mars. In 1993, the Mars Observer spacecraft went silent just as it was about to enter Mars orbit. Last December the Mars Polar Lander, which was to conduct experiments to search for water beneath the soil, was also lost. Two Deep Space Probes, literally designed to bite the dust and investigate the soil, disappeared along with it. And the Global Survey was employed to try and find signs of it, without success.

(Of course, if you ask me, it was work of the great stone face. Various sources on the web inform me — based on their reliable psychic sources — that old stoneface must have opened its giant maw and sucked them into the miniature black hole that resides in its bowels... )

Seriously, the Surveyor's startling new images may revive widespread interest in Mars exploration. Not just to the extent of sending remotes and robots to find out more, but perhaps even to the extent of generating renewed interest and consideration (and yes, funding) for sending people.

Why? If water has existed on Mars so recently — indeed, if water in any abundance can be found close beneath the surface, colonists from earth would have a water supply.

If you think this is far-fetched, consider another piece of recent news: an agreement between NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and MSE Technology Applications Inc. of Butte, Montana, to collaborate on a new, plasma-based propulsion technology that could get a rocket ship to Mars in half the time our current thrusters can do it. That means: 3 months instead of 8 months.

That's right, Mr. Sulu. Clear all moorings!