One of the things the Mars rover will look for is organic molecules that could at least indicate whether there was once life on the Red Planet. But if searching for life in outer space is the goal, many scientists now say we might have better luck elsewhere — specifically one of Saturn's moons, Enceladus.
NASA planetary scientist Chris McKay is working on a proposal to send a mission to Enceladus, which is more or less a frozen rock that's not much more than 300 miles in diameter.
"Think of it as a small world or a large snowball," McKay tells Guy Raz, host of weekends on All Things Considered.
But this large snowball is interesting to scientists such as McKay because there's a geyser coming out of its south pole from what scientists believe is a subsurface body of liquid water, like a sea or a lake, which contains organic compounds.
There could be life in both places. There's plenty of underground water on Mars as well. To read more, click here.