Just days after NASA scientists announced they'd found evidence of flowing water on Mars, the quest for life on the red planet will orbit a little closer to home.
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The probability of life on Mars is the topic of the now sold-out David Cooper Memorial Lecture on Thursday night at Australian National University.
The rather fortuitously timed annual lecture, part of the Australian Space Research Conference running in Canberra this week, commemorates the life and work of the Australian space advocate, who co-founded the Mars Society of Australia.
The society's ACT branch coordinator Jon Clarke said Mr Cooper would be "over the moon" with NASA's discovery.
"David wasn't an academic; he was just an ordinary guy with a vision for space and for the future. I think he would have been very excited about this discovery and to share with the Australian community what it meant for space exploration and where we go from here," Mr Clarke said.
With the presence of liquid water, Mr Clarke said the question humanity will have to tackle next is if there isn't life on Mars, why not?
"There appear to be these habitable niches and we know early Mars is very like early Earth so if there is no life why isn't there? While it would be disappointing it would also be a very important scientific question," Mr Clarke said.
Australian National University astronomer Dr Brad Tucker said the next rovers landing in 2019 and 2020 will have a better chance of answering that question thanks to this recent discovery.
"You don't even need sunlight on Earth for life but everywhere we look on Earth life needs water. If you have water on Mars, that's a great place to look for life," Dr Tucker said.
"Early on Mars was identified as a great opportunity to find life on another planet. Mars has always had this great appeal, it's our neighbour planet, it's seemingly in some ways like us and if it has life, then we're not alone. We don't want to be alone."
