02-寻找火星生命

Back in 2002, the Mars Odyssey orbiter stumbled upon a chance discovery as it peered down at the planet.

What it found changed the game of finding life on Mars.

Odyssey's spectrometer uncovered a region with huge quantities of hydrogen under the surface, indicated by the color blue.

Scientists believe this hydrogen is attached to oxygen. . . H2O. . . water, most likely in the form of subsurface ice.

SMITH: This map was created by an instrument on the Odyssey orbiter.

In the upper three feet of surface, you can find regions of water abundance that you can see in no other way, because the surface is covered in soil. And that is totally unexpected.

NARRATOR: If Phoenix lands, it will provide hard evidence of water on the planet.

Is this the water NASA has been looking for? Could this ice have ever harbored life?

And so is the amount of ice that made this discovery so unusual. That's why we wanted to investigate it right away.

And our mission was conceived at the discovery point of that ice.