http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/02/20/lifes-building-blocks-found-on-dwarf-planet-ceres.htmlalways interesting to read about stuff like this. Also interesting to note that there are three moons out there that are larger than Mars, and that the Moon is not that much smaller than Mars.
I have always hoped I could see us going to Mars or at least back to the moon in my life time.
There are no moons larger than Mars. Titan (Saturn's moon) is the largest in the Solar System and is smaller than Mars. However, Titan has a thick atmosphere and has oceans of liquid hydrocarbons. Our moon is only about half the diameter of Mars.
I doubt if humans will ever go to Mars. During a journey that long it seems they would permanently lose muscle mass due to prolonged weightlessness and, it now seems, would experience dementia from exposure to cosmic rays. Increasingly, robotic craft could do anything humans could do much cheaper and better.
Given the extreme complexity of even the simplest forms of life, the odds of a few organic molecules meaning there's life there is infinitely less than the odds of the presence of iron and copper meaning that you'll find cars there.
Diameter of Mars is 4212 miles. Ganymede is 3269, so yeah, not bigger, but dang close.
Organic molecules can join and become more complex. Because nobody yet understands how life starts, it is also true that nobody can say under what circumstances it doesn't.
It's out there. Somewhere. We'll find it. If it's in our solar system, it will be primitive life like an amoeba or something. But life nonetheless.
these are truly exciting times for folks that dream of Man exploring the solar system and beyond. It's going to happen. I have always felt that for the dream to be realized, the economic benefits explored and pursued by private ventures will be the way.
I never lost anything on Mars