On Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover will begin difficult hunt for evidence of past life
The Plain Dealer: As NASA prepares for the Aug. 6 touchdown of its most advanced rover on Mars, the agency is cautious about the prospect of confirming life there; instead, the official goal is to find out if past conditions could have supported life. “I think one of the most fundamental issue for Mars is understanding when some of these climatological issues happened,” Ralph Harvey, associate professor of geological sciences. “The hope is we’ll see a bunch of layers of rock where we actually see climate change reflected in the changes in mineralogy.”