Right now, Mars is a reddish desert landscape – attractive but dead, and certainly not home to any little green men.

We often forget how wonderful it is that life exists, and what a special and unique phenomenon it is. As far as we know, ours is the only planet capable of supporting life, and it seems to have arisen in the form of something like today’s single-celled prokaryotic organisms.

To solve that problem, a team of German researchers at the Technical University in Berlin figured that, instead of having a robot looking for microbes, it would be easier and cheaper to make the microbes come to the robot. The only ingredient they were lacking was the right bait.

The search for extraterrestrial life extends beyond Mars to include moons like Europa and Enceladus, which might harbor life-sustaining conditions. Discoveries such as extremophiles on Earth, capable of thriving in extreme environments,

Scientists suggest alien life may be microscopic, surviving in extreme environments like toxic clouds, icy moons, or even inside our own stomachs.

IIT Madras' ExTeM team pioneers solutions for space colonization, developing waterless concrete for Martian construction, and driving innovations for sustainable human life beyond Earth.

Right now, Mars is a reddish desert landscape ... Though unrelated to the search for extraterrestrial life at the time, his discovery broadened its scientific possibilities.