comments Now that the NASA rover Perseverance has successfully touched down on the red planet, the rover is due to set about its primary mission of trying to search for signs of life on Mars. Indeed, from its landing site to its specialized tool kit, the plucky car-sized rover is purposefully designed to look for life signs. Specifically, Perseverance contains complex machinery for testing the atmosphere and scooping up soil samples so they can be returned to Earth. If Perseverance's exploration yields signs of life, that would obviously be one of the greatest discoveries in the history of science. But what, exactly, would the life itself look like? Could we actually discover funny little green men in flying saucers or a sophisticated and awe-inspiring civilization?