In 1976, these V2 landers probed, unsuccessfully, for life. NASA chose safe landing sites, fearing the Vikings would tip over in rough terrain.
Thermal springs, which may have dotted this volcano’s flanks, are where life on Earth is thought to have begun.
The Pathfinder probe will drop into the middle of a channel where water from hot springs is thought to have gurgled. If not home to life today, it may still preserve its fossilized remains.
Site of dried lakes and extensive river systems, this valley could hold Martian fossils and organic molecules.
A 500-mile-long river fed a lake here. Signs of different water levels mean it may have lasted long enough to support life.
Its bright surface may be lake mineral deposits–perhaps harboring microbes or their fossils.
Life requires liquid water. It may lurk beneath these rock-ice glaciers.
Mars’s northern regions are rich in water–frozen at the surface but not necessarily below.
This yawning, five-mile-deep chasm could be a fossil-hunter’s paradise, but it’s too rugged to consider for an early NASA probe.
Famous scenery, but these massive volcanoes don’t show much evidence of water.
