Question

If you found life on Mars using a robotic rover, what would NASA do next?

We would hold a press conference and a celebration party! Realistically, however, we can't expect to be lucky enough simply to discover life. More likely we will find evidence suggestive of life, which will then be discussed in the scientific literature and may require follow-up studies on Mars itself. This is what happened ten years ago when scientists at NASA Johnson Space Flight Center discovered evidence for fossil life in a martian meteorite. Because this evidence was ambiguous, the first step was to write a scientific paper and get it reviewed and accepted for publication. Only then came the press conference, and after that several years of research by many scientists. I don't know when the scientists who made the initital discovery had their celebration party -- perhaps when their paper was accepted for publcation. David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
March 12, 2007