Seeing red

Ten astronauts train for mission to Mars after microbial life find

- BY MATT ROPER Senior Feature Writer

For as long as we've looked up at the night sky, Mars is the one planet that has stood out from all the rest. Glowing red in the distant darkness, it has been an obsession of humans for millennia.

Babylonians called it Nergal, the great hero. To the Greeks it was Ares, god of war. The Egyptians even named their capital Cairo after it - al Qahirah, or “the conqueror”.

But in the 21st century, Mars has gone from ancient myth and mystery to a place we are actively exploring - and will soon actually set foot on.

Yesterday, Nasa introduced the world to the six women and four men selected from 8,000 applicants who could be the first to travel to the Red Planet.

Ben Bailey, Lauren Edgar, Adam Fuhrmann, Cameron Jones, Yuri Kubo, Rebecca Lawler, Anna Menon, Imelda Muller, Erin Overcash and Katherine Spies will train for nearly two years.

They will then be eligible for science and exploitation missions to low Earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars.

Nasa scientists announced last week they had found “the clearest sign of life” on the planet, which at its farthest is about 140 million miles away from us. Samples drilled by the Perseverance rover from Neretva Falls, an ancient river channel, in July 2024, showed surface spots and nodules often associated with microbial life on Earth.

Associate administrator of Nasa's science mission directorate, Dr Nicky Fox, said: “We're kind of one step closer to answering one of humanity's most profound questions - are we truly alone in the universe?”

Astrobiologist Paul Davies is even more emphatic. Speaking on Sky History's Ancient Aliens, he says: “Do I believe that there is or was life on Mars? Yes, I'm absolutely certain of it.”