Mars Paleontology:
     MANY SCIENTISTS BELIEVE THERE MAY ONCE HAVE BEEN LIFE ON  MARS 

(SFX: alien voices "ET phone home") 

NO, NOT THAT KIND OF LIFE--MORE LIKELY MICROBES THAT LIVED 3 TO 4 BILLION YEARS
AGO WHEN MARS WAS A WET PLANET MUCH LIKE EARTH.

     Farmer: "That's the same time interval when life emerged on our planet. . . we're
compelled to ask the quesiton, if life developed on earth under similar conditsion, why
not on Mars?"

     JACK FARMER IS AN EXOBIOLOGIST AT NASA AND HE'S PLANNING THE SEARCH FOR
TRACES OF THIS ANCIENT LIFE.  THE PLAN? TO LOOK FOR FOSSILS JUST LIKE WE DO ON
EARTH.   FOSSILS OF MICROBES CAN ONLY BE SEEN UNDER MICROSCOPES BUT THEY DO
LEAVE SOME TRACKS THAT CAN BE SEEN WITH THE NAKED EYE.  FOR EXAMPLE, SOME
THING CALLED STROMATOLITES WHICH ARE LONG GROOVES IN THE ROCK  LEFT BEHIND
BY A COLONY OF MICROBES.

     Farmer: "Stromatolites are the most abundant fossil on earth."

     SO ONE OF THE THINGS FARMER DOES IS IDENTIFY JUST WHERE WE'RE LIKELY TO
FIND STRAMATOLITES ON EARTH--WHETHER IT BE IN HOTSPRINGS OR ANCIENT OCEAN
BEDS. HE HOPES TO LEARN HOW TO FIND SIMILAR HOTSPOTS FOR FOSSIL SEARCHES ON
MARS.   

     Farmer: "Starting this year we will  launch an orbiter to mars that will. . . look at the
surface and give us information about the mineral composistion. . . now when we go
looking for fossils on earth we go to specific kinds of geological locations and look in
particular kinds of rocks, so hopefully with these early missions we'll be able to see where
the key rock types are so that by the later missions. . . we'll be able to grab rock samples
from the right kind of geological setting ."

     WITH SEVERAL MISSIONS, FARMER HOPES TO PROVE WHETHER OR NOT THERE WAS
EVER LIFE ON MARS.  AND THAT MIGHT INSPIRE A WHOLE NEW KIND OF  EXTRATERRESTRIAL
MOVIE 

(sfx:" Microbe phone home").