Next Stop: Mars?

We, earthlings, have launched many probes and satellites on the red planet. A kind of invasion, but not for conquest, but for knowledge. What happened to Mars? Is there life there? Or maybe there was once? The main question that requires an answer is whether life, as we know it on Earth, even the simplest life of microbes, is unique. If we go to Mars and find there traces of the vital activity of ancient bacteria or even living bacteria that have survived. Will it be the same as early life on Earth? #lifeonmars