Since that time, the Mars Pathfinder lander and rover have gathered a wealth of information concerning the chemical and geologic makeup of Mars. For more information on this most recent mission to the Red Planet, click here. One of the goals of the Viking missions was to determine whether or not there existed life on Mars. The results of the experiments were proposed by NASA scientists to have been inconclusive at best. In 1984, scientists uncovered a meteorite in Antarctica that has been determined to have originated from Mars.
Researchers claim to have discovered bacteria-like structures within the Martian meteorite.
However, there is still much debate in the scientific community as to whether or not these structures are really ancient Martians or just the geologic results of exotic chemical reactions within the Martian crust. For more information on the discovery and analysis of the Martian meteorite, check out the following web page that was assembled at Purdue's astronomy website. This link also provides more links to more detailed and technical information on this potentially amazing discovery. Of all of the planets that occupy our Solar system, Mars is the most Earth-like of them all. NASA has accepted a plan to place humans on the surface of Mars within the next 20 to 25 years.