One big step
November 20th, 2008 by SecureCare“Giant glaciers buried under the surface of Mars at much lower latitudes than any previously known ice…”If there is life on Mars, this kind of ice would likely preserve ancient organisms and DNA,”…”Just one of the features we examined is three times larger than the city of Los Angeles, and up to one-half mile thick, and there are many more,”…Many scientists doubted that giant reservoirs of ice could exist on Mars so close to the equator, but calculations suggest these regions were once much colder than they are now, due to variations in the tilt of Mars’ rotational axis….” Full Slice
Even less reason not to go now
November 20th, 2008 at 17:11
Drill, baby, drill.
Drill the poles and glaciers, buried and exposed. Drill wherever it strikes your fancy, and at random. No life? Great! Rescind the forward-contamination rules! Go looking for life on Enceladus if you don’t like that. Terraform by default or by design.
November 22nd, 2008 at 19:59
Probably need some remote drilling “gopher” device that burrows through the selected area and reports back its` results. Sort of a deep drilling rover.
Maybe even many microscale items. Burrowing micromechanical devices delivered “by the ton” all over the place. A scatter search strategy.
Explore, baby, explore !