Mars Exploration Criticized By Scientists

British-led researchers say probes being used to find life on Mars do not drill deep enough to discover the living cells some scientists believe exist.

University College London scientists say although current drills may find signs that life once existed on Mars, cellular life today would have to remain deep beneath the surface of Mars to escape deadly radiation levels.

The study charts cosmic radiation levels at various depths, taking into account different surface conditions on Mars.

Finding hints that life once existed — proteins, DNA fragments or fossils — would be a major discovery in itself, said the lead author of the study, Lewis Dartnell of University College London’s Center for Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences & Experimental Biology.

But the Holy Grail for astrobiologists is finding a living cell that we can warm up, feed nutrients and reawaken for studying, Dartnell added. It just isn’t plausible that dormant life is still surviving in the near-subsurface of Mars.

The research appears in the current issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.