LIFE ON MARS FOUND 36 YEARS AGO?

Here's the thing. Mars has water. It's frozen at it's poles, but we know very well that it does have water. We also know that Mars has a gas named methane, which (as far as we know) can only come from two things: Microbial life that releases it or active volcanoes erupting. As far as we know, there are no active volcanoes on Mars. That being said, the only logical thing that could be producing the methane are tiny microbes that might live on the planet. Another thing that further reinforces the theory that there are microbes on Mars is that methane percentage in Mars' atmosphere is higher in the day than during the night.

Now, why do scientists suddenly think that there is life on Mars? Well 36 years ago, we sent the Viking spacecrafts to Mars. When the rover landed, there is a high chance that any microbial life that could have been in the soil could have been melted at temperatures of about 160 degrees.

NASA has commented that there is still a lot of uncertainty on whether there really is life on Mars or not, but followed up by saying that Curiosity (which will be landing on mars in August) has instruments that will allow NASA to "discover the nature of oxidants in the Martian soil".

Now all this being said, this is great! In my opinion there definitely is microbial life on Mars, we just haven't found it yet. If and when we do discover concrete evidence that there is life on Mars (Martian microbes in a petri dish, anyone?) a lot will change.

NASA HAS TO REMAKE PLANS FOR MARS

Yet again, NASA is forced to redraw it's plans for landing people on the Mars. Obama slashed NASA's budget by around 20% during his term, and so scientists have calculated landing a man on Mars would happen in the 2030's. Because of the budget cut, NASA has already cancelled two missions with the European Space Agency that were planned for 2016 and 2018, with the one in 2018 set to bring back actual rocks from Mars.

Now, Obama cutting down NASA's funding is the worst possible thing he can do. Not only is the space program very important to rebuilding our economy, but America and NASA were once known for innovation and setting new frontiers in Space. The budget cuts will only destroy and chance we have at being in the lead in the space race.

It's sad to say that from now on a large amount of space exploration will only come from private companies like SpaceX, which are actually meeting up with NASA to talk about the first private flight to the ISS.