NASA's rover Curiosity may not discover evidence of life on Mars, writes astrobiologist Malcolm Walter, but there's a much better chance we'll know for sure if extra-terrestrial life exists before the end of the century.
I have been searching for evidence of extra-terrestrial life since the 1980s. I believe that we will probably find it.
I'm not a UFO spotter. Nor do I imagine the latest NASA rover, Curiosity, will come across any little green men as it methodically combs and probes Mars over the next few years, despite last week's historic broadcast of a recorded human voice from Mars, or the Curiosity's joke "tweet" about alien life.
But I do think Mars is probably our best bet, at least in this solar system, if we are going to finally answer that eternal question: is there anything out there? And I believe Australia has a major role to play in this particular space race of the 21st century. While the 20th century was marked by the "giant leap" made by Neil Armstrong as he first stepped out onto the surface of the moon, this century's quests lie on Mars and beyond.
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