Mars Beckons...

Mars, our most Earth-like neighbor, beckons. Its pristine and diverse surface, equal in area to Earth's surface, displays a long and geologic and climatic history.

A century ago the astronomer Percival Lowell believed he was witnessing, from his observatory in northern Arizona, the last attempts of a dying Martian civilization to cope with the devastating effects of climate change. Imagined canals carrying water to the arid regions of the planet suggested to Lowell that Mars had experienced the evolutionary process that might in time befall the Earth. Twentieth century astronomers soon dispelled the motion of an inhabited Mars, but the expectation of simple life forms persisted.

Today, after sending reconnaissance missions to Mars, our view of the planer maintains some striking similarities to those earlier, romantic conjectures. We know from our orbiting spacecraft carrying sophisticated sensors that Mars has undergone dramatic climatic and geologic change. Water coursing over its surface in the distant past left dramatic evidence in deeply carved channels and fluvial networks. Yet today we find the planet is cold and dry. The Viking landers found no evidence of life, but could not rule out the possibility that life may have existed in the past.

Mysteries Remain...

How did our Earth-like neighbor come to its present parched, frigid and nearly airless state? Did life evolve and then die out? Did it leave a fossil record? Can the changes experienced by Mars teach us something about the changes predicted to occur on our planet? It is the goal of the Mars Surveyor Program to answer these questions.