1. Describe how one uses radioactive age dating to determine the age of a rock.
2. Are there liquid oceans on Mars today? Are there flowing rivers on Mars today? Why don't we believe that there will be oceans and flowing rivers on Mars today?
3. Is there any water on Mars today? Is there evidence that water exists on Mars today? Where does the water exist on Mars today? What is the evidence that water exists on Mars today?
4. Is there evidence that oceans and lakes, and/or rivers existed on Mars in the past? What is the evidence? If so, when did they exist? How do we know when they existed? Are these results consistent with our ideas on the evolution of the Martian atmosphere?
4. What evidence gathered by Curiosity (and other rovers and Martian missions) shows that Mars once had a lusher climate in the past?
5. What is the significance of the deuterium to hydrogen ratio (D/H ratio) on Mars? How does the (D/H) ratio on Mars compare to that on Earth and Venus? Based on the (D/H) ratio, how much of its original store of water has Mars lost?
6. Carefully describe why Mars is considered one of the best sites for searches for extra-Terrestrial life in our Solar System. Cite the reasons that support your answer.
7. Describe the biology experiments carried out by the Viking Landers? What results were initially found by these experiments? How did Phoenix alter our interpretation of the Viking results? What was the significance of the discovery of perchlorates in the soil of Mars by the Phoenix lander? How did Curiosity greatly improve our understanding? What is ALH84001? Describe the results of the study of ALH84001?
8. Did either the Viking experiments or ALH84001 show that life exists or has existed on Mars in the past?
9. What is meant by the acronym LAWKI? Is LAWKI a sensible idea? Support your answer with a cogent argument.