On December 9th 2013, researchers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that its Curiosity Rover had discovered evidence of once habitable conditions for life at a dry lake bed on the surface of Mars. While it's not the revelation of finding ancient structures, or even evidence of microbial life, it does suggest that the latter may yet be found.
The area in question is called Yellowknife Bay, and it is believed that water not only once filled the lake, but flowed over the soil there even after the lake had dried up. Some questions were raised as to the presence of hydrocarbons, which are the energy source for micro organisms that live in extreme environments. It is believed that detected high levels of hydrocarbons were influenced by solvents that had leaked from a storage chamber on the rover.
Scientists at JPL still believe that the detection of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen that was found in a rock that was drilled at Yellowknife Bay make a strong case for the evidence of a once habitable environment.
The report also included the first measurement of any radiation hazard that future human missions to Mars might face. Curiosity found that most of the radiation comes from cosmic rays, which come from outside of our solar system. The ten month measurement revealed that the radiation exposure risk of a manned mission to Mars would be 5%. The risk to astronauts working in low Earth orbit is currently 3%. It would certainly be something that volunteers for a manned Mars mission to seriously consider.
Curiosity successfully landed on Mars on August 6th 2012. Since that time the images, data, and experimental findings have proven the rover to be worth it's value. Clearly, there will no doubt be more discoveries in the months ahead.
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