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Long ago, many millions of years in the past, Mars and Earth were very similar. Just like Earth, Mars was warm and wet. In fact, its climate was a lot like Earth's. It also may have supported life on its surface. We have a lot of interesting evidence that suggests many things about the red planet, but this evidence also poses many questions. Did life ever exist on Mars? Does it still exist there? Will Mars someday be able to support human life, and can its climate be altered to do so?
We have already begun to answer these questions about Mars and its past with the Viking probes that landed on the planet in the 70's, and again with the Mars Pathfinder probe in '97. We have also begun a program to send a manned mission to Mars early next century. We have already launched several probes, and someday, perhaps not so distant in the future, we may terraform Mars into a miniature Earth. Mars may one day support entire ecosystems, complete copies of the environment on Earth! Only time will tell our future with the red planet.
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