The Russian Phobos-Grunt space probe has really had a rough run of things. The craft was originally intended to land on the Martian moon Phobos and return a soil sample by 2014. Instead, Phobos-Grunt has been stuck in orbit since it was launched in early November. Today, the probe made an uncontrolled re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean just before 1:00 P.M. E.S.T..

It’s hard to imagine that life exists somewhere on the barren, dry, cold reaches of some place like Mars. It’s even harder to look for any, on Mars at least. That’s why many scientists have turned to studying the extremophile microbes that live in the most inhospitable places on Earth to discover what kind of off-the-wall, unpredictable survival techniques might be used to survive out in the wastes of Mars, or anywhere else for that matter. By studying extremophiles, researchers from Portland State University have discovered a particularly gritty kind of bacteria that survives by essentially eating iron.

In celebration of the impending destruction of the Earth because some Mayan dude couldn’t be bothered to extend his calendar a little further, Wired has reintroduced Tinfoil Hat Tuesdays to celebrate the best conspiracy theorists have to offer. Today’s is a real gem. I’d write my own lede, but I think it’s best to let the source speak for itself. Let me assure you, it is pure gold. From Exopolitics:

Two former participants in the CIA’s Mars visitation program of the early 1980’s have confirmed that U.S. President Barack H. Obama was enrolled in their Mars training class in 1980 and was among the young Americans from the program who they later encountered on the Martian surface after reaching Mars via “jump room.”

Emphasis ours, to help note when your eyes should jump out of your head.

The dreams of a life-sustaining Mars have mostly died away, with recent study focusing on whether or not Mars could have supported life at one point. However, a new study shows that while the surface of the red planet might be barren, the conditions under the Martian surface could support life in some form. If the work is correct, it suggests that huge areas of the planet might be more life-sustaining than originally thought.

NASA rover Opportunity has found what is described as “the single most powerful piece of evidence for liquid water at Mars,” by Steve Squyres, Opportunity’s principle investigator. The evidence, announced by researchers yesterday, is a mineral vein, comprised of gypsum that was almost certainly deposited by a water source. Opportunity has been trolling Mars for eight years along with its twin, Spirit, and this recent discovery of a mineral vein around the rim of the massive crater Endeavor is its most exciting discovery to date.

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, called Curiosity, blasted off today from Cape Canaveral, FL atop an Atlas V rocket on its way to Mars. The ambitious mission will place the most advanced space rover yet conceived on the red planet, in hopes of discerning whether Mars has ever been home to microbial life. Following today’s successful 10 AM launch, the rover will cruise to Mars arriving in August 2012.

See video of this morning’s launch, after the break.

Though the launch of the new Mars rover, Curiosity, was delayed for two years, that didn’t stop what we all hope will be the little rover that could, as NASA is set to launch the rover this week, on Saturday, November 26. Launching from Florida’s venerable Cape Canaveral Air Force Station after a one day delay caused by a rocket battery problem, Curiosity will set out to determine if Mars ever supported, or still supports, microbial life. Yes, technically, Curiosity’s job is to determine if there is — or ever was — alien life.

You know what’s cool? Caves. You know what’s cooler than caves? Caves on Mars. This image, captured with the HiRise camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), shows a large bowl-like depression in the Martian landscape. At the apex of the depression, an entrance to a subterranean level of the planet can clearly be seen. Keep in mind that it is a false-color image, but that doesn’t make it any less striking.

Every time NASA holds a press conference it is completely impossible not to start thinking, well maybe they’ve done it this time, maybe they’ve found alien life. It happened when the Internet got carried away with the arsenic life debacle last year. So, when NASA said they had a special announcement about Mars, who didn’t start hoping for aliens, really? But, alas, once again NASA has not found life on Mars. What they did find, pictured in the image above, is water. Or, what is most likely, probably, should be, water of some kind.

Now, liquid water on Mars, that is pretty cool. But what is the evidence? Images gathered by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have showed dark, finger-like features that appear and extend down some of the slopes on Mars’ surface. These features appear during the warmest months on Mars, and retreat as it gets colder, leading to the conclusion that it could possibly be the result of water flowing on or beneath Mars’ surface.

With sights set on a manned mission to Mars, the idea of astronauts taking a walk on the red planet is something scientists have to prepare for. The search for life on planets like Mars could be increasingly complicated by a manned mission, because microbes or signs of life from Earth could be transported to new environments on the astronauts’ space suits. So, researchers have been working on the problem of spacesuit contamination using microscopic fluorescent tracers and lasers to test spacesuit simulations.

Part of the Austrian Space Forum’s PolAres program (which runs from 2007-2012,) researchers held mock Mars missions using spacesuit simulators in the San Rafael desert in Utah. Led by Gernot Groemer, president of the Austrian Space Forum, the contamination experiments also work in reverse to make sure that no particles from Mars get transported back on the space suits.