Lecture 27: Is There Life on Mars?

Is there life on Mars? We begin with a brief historical survey of the idea of inhabitable Mars, from Herschel to Lowell, and look at how the idea of Mars and Martians is deeply embedded in the popular culture. We then turn to spacecraft explorations of Mars, and how they have changed our view of the Red planet. We will discuss the on-going search of Martian life, past and present, particularly the Viking 1 and 2 experiments, the Allan Hills Meteorite controversy, Mars Methane, and recent important results from the Phoenix lander. We'll end by briefly noting future directions in Mars exploration. Recorded live on 2009 Nov 2 in Room 1005 Smith Laboratory on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.