27-9-2008
It has been four months since the Phoenix Mars lander put down near Mars' north pole in search of signs of present or past life.

At 68 degrees 35 minutes north, the region is near the edge of a region rich in water ice.

The logic to this exploration is that where there is water, there is a chance of life. How that life got there is another story. If the water contains amino acids, the organic molecules that are found in all forms of life, it could be that life on Mars exists now, or could have existed some time ago.

So far, no exciting fanfares have been heard from the mission scientists. Time is passing, folks. Or have I missed something?

The website www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=space&id=news/NOT08048.xml has said that Phoenix scientists have said that the two chemistry analyses systems could not detect current or past life. Nor have the microscopes detected bacteria. Even the soil contains the oxidant perchlorate, not a nice environment for life. So the news is negative, and we know that negative science news doesn't make headlines.

But will they take no for an answer? Already you can take the scientific pulse. Another mission is already planned for 2013 with $2 million from NASA. This mission will be called ExoMars, and will support an instrument to detect the right or left-handedness of amino acids they hope to find.

This "chirality" (after the Greek word for hand) reveals whether any amino acids present were life-associated, or like synthetic amino acids which have a mixture of left- and right-handedness. If amino acids found have only the left-handed variety, then there is a match with Earth-life amino acids.

"But if we find L acids, then things get more complicated," says instrument team leader Geoffrey Bada of the University of California, San Diego. "It could mean that during the emergence of life on Earth and Mars, both happened to choose L acids by chance. Or it may imply we're related in some way, that microbes from Earth seeded Mars, or vice versa."

Now that statement reveals that science believes in the random assembly of complex life molecules from non-living chemicals.

I don't buy that assumption for one moment, and let's be frank, even if you did find L-acids in an oxidising soil, it is still a long way from soup to DNA.

Updated 12 November
The Phoenix lander has now died, due to a lack of seasonal sunlight to power it, and it is considered unlikely that it will restart when the sunny season arrives. That means that the expedition is over, and still there has been no discovery of life. If life—bacterial or otherwise—were present on the planet, you would think it would be ubiquitous, even at the relatively high latitude of the lander. Life is found everywhere on Earth.

Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson has no positive statement about life, merely asking again the question, "Have we found such a thing?" He says ongoing analysis of the data will help answer the question. Let me second-guess him. If he had any evidence, or any hope of life, he would have expressed it.