The Mars 2020 mission with the 
Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter
really resonates with us: my students, my
research associates, and myself.
In particular, the Jezero crater, which is the landing site
for the Perseverance rover. It has been
photographed previously by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2007 and showed evidence
of an ancient delta within it.
The sediments containing the hydrous clay
minerals, and the carbonates at the crater site
have been thought to be transported by water
from nearby highlands billions of years ago.
In such a deltaic setting, they would be favorable
for the accumulation and preservation of
organic matter
and perhaps, it would be a potential sign
of life on Mars.
As the Mars exploration program enters
its third decade,
the Mars 2020 mission builds on the
successes of the previous orbiters,
landers, and rovers
that have now firmly established the
presence of sustained liquid water,
and habitable environments
by addressing
the key astrobiology question:
are there potential signs of past microbial life on Mars?
Or, alternately, are there biosignatures
on Mars that Perseverance can detect.
Now, as we are gearing to send humans to Mars,
and, therefore, there is now an even more
urgent need to detect signs of extinct or extant
life on Mars, before human presence
contaminates the surface of Mars.
The fiery, red planet, Mars, beckons.
Go Perseverance and Ingenuity!
