re: Manned exploration of Mars if there's no chance of finding evidence of life.
Golf gives up the secrets of life
"In 1996, NASA announced it had found microscopic fossils of primitive bacteria-like organisms in meteorite ALH84001 that landed in Antarctica.
Scientists have debated NASA's findings and whether the organisms were biological or Martian.
Scientists Dr Tony Taylor from the Australian Nuclear Science Technology Organisation and Professor John Barry from the University of Queensland confirmed that many bacteria have the same structures as those found in the Mars meteorite."