re: Seeking answers to life development
To drop a mildly off topic opinion into the middle of the conversation: As far as studying the origins of life goes, i think the moons of the gas giants,will be a much better place to look than arid and geologically quite mars. There might be some extra tough little critter holed up somewhere in the ice on mars, but on titan for example there may be all the steps from organic matter to simple replicators laid out in the vents of cryovolcanoes and melt pools from impacts! I'd be ecstatic if life were found on mars, but this whole kerfuffle underlines to me how mars seems to hold an unfair stranglehold on peoples imaginations.