The study of Mars, especially life on Mars, has always been fueled just as much by dreams as data. It's equal parts romance and rocket fuel. Tall tales and telescopes. Speculation and starships. I could do this all day, but we have a question to answer: is there life on Mars?

Today we'll take a look at the ways we've tried to answer this question in the past, why we think there might be life up there at all, what evidence of its existence it might leave behind, and how maybe, just maybe, the first shreds of that evidence have already been found.

Written and produced by Steven Carson

Cover Art by Bree Seeley

Music by Incompetech.com

This is Why We Explore: a podcast about all the places humanity has gone, the journeys and discoveries made along the way, the stories that inspired us to keep going, and where that inspiration might take us in the future.

Written and produced by Steven Carson

Title Artwork by Bree Seeley

Music by audionautix.com