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we're not looking for aliens we're not

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even looking for fossils we'll be

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looking for bacteria or signs of

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bacteria and the reason for that is

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because for most of the Earth's history

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they have been the predominant form of

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life the chances are it may be different

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from life on Earth and therefore what we

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have to look for is is it doing the same

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things that life does on earth water is

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a necessary component for life as we

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know it so when we think about trying to

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understand life on other planets one of

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our strategies is to understand the

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water we're focusing on Mars because

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Mars in its early history may have been

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a lot warmer and wetter than it is now

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it looks like there used to be flowing

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liquid water on the surface of Mars but

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today there isn't any liquid water that

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we can find or if there is any it's very

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infrequent we want to detect organics

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because organics are the building blocks

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for life organics are molecules that

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contain carbon and we know that carbon

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is central element that makes up our

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bodies and makes up life so both Phoenix

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and the Mars Science Laboratory will

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Phoenix is the next Mars Lander mission

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when we land on in on Mars we're going

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to land in the north polar region that's

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about equivalent to Alaska latitudes on

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the earth or mid Greenland and our job

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is to land and dig down and sample the

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soils and ice that will encounter in

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that region of Mars Mars Science

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Laboratory will have sophisticated

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instruments which will be able to look

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at the mineralogy in much more detail

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but also looking at minerals which

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either were formed by organisms living

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organisms or show signs that living

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organisms were around when they were

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formed but we're not only focusing on

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Mars there are other places in the solar

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beyond the solar system there are people

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who are looking at the planets which go

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around distant stars trying to analyze

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their atmospheres there's no silver

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bullet we've got to take all the

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possible approaches or at least a large

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number of them and put all the bits

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together see where to look and what to

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find looking for life outside the earth