African Centers of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Data-Intensive Science (ACE) - National Institutes of Health (NIH) | (.gov)

Layers of ice on Mars, like those viewed in Chasma Boreale by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), hold a fragile record of climate fluctuations. Credit: NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona Transforming Mars into a more Earth-like world could irreversibly destroy scientific evidence about the planet's history and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. In an opinion article published in Eos, a team of Dutch, French and U. S. planetary scientists and ethicists warns that humanity risks destroying Mars' scientific record before it has been fully explored.