Mars Biological Potential

Researchers Bruce Jakosky, Stacy Varnes, and Thomas McCollom have looked at the biological potential of Martian hydrothermal systems, presenting their findings this week at a meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society in Birmingham, Alabama."Weve been working on this for several years. What weve done is look at the availability of geochemical energy in the environment of Mars as a source of energy that might support metabolism of organisms," Jakosky told SPACE.com. On Earth there are organisms that use that source of energy - energy given off by chemical weathering reactions like oxidation of iron and minerals, Jakosky said.Organisms on Mars could, in a figurative sense, stick their finger into that reaction, mediate it, and take advantage of the energy, Jakosky said. "What weve done is to look at the types of environments that occur on Mars and use them as a constraint to calculate how much energy could be available," he added.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_biological_021011.html