For years, the mantra in the search for life on Mars has been simple: “Follow the water.” Scientists have believed that if we’re going to find any signs of Martian life, it starts with tracking down water.
But what if this approach isn’t just wrong—it’s actually killing any potential life on the Red Planet?
That’s the bold idea from German astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch, whose recent paper in Nature Astronomy shakes up this long-held belief. Titled “We may be looking for Martian life in the wrong place,” the paper argues that introducing water to Martian soil, as scientists did during NASA’s Viking experiments in the 1970s, might be doing more harm than good.
“Mars is so dry that adding liquid water could be lethal to any life that’s there,” Schulze-Makuch explains. It sounds counterintuitive, but he says we might need to let go of our Earth-based assumptions about life and water.
The Case for Salts Over Water
So, what’s the alternative? Salts.
In some of Earth’s harshest, driest environments—like the Atacama Desert in Chile—organisms survive by pulling moisture straight from the air using salts. Schulze-Makuch thinks the same could be happening on Mars.
“Salts, and organisms with the help of salts, can extract water directly from the atmosphere,” he told Space.com. “That’s crucial because it allows water to stick around longer at a microscopic level, making it accessible to microbes.”
The Atacama Desert, the driest nonpolar desert on Earth, served as Schulze-Makuch’s proving ground for this theory. If life can persist in such extreme conditions here, why not on Mars?
Of course, this is still speculative. Schulze-Makuch doesn’t claim to have definitive proof of Martian life using this salty survival trick.
But he points out that billions of years ago, Mars was a water-rich world, much like Earth. As the planet dried up and transformed into the dusty desert we know today, any surviving life would likely have adapted to these harsher conditions.
Rethinking the Search for Life
Schulze-Makuch isn’t throwing water out of the equation entirely—he still thinks it’s essential for life.
But instead of pouring water onto Martian soil and waiting to see what happens, he suggests that scientists focus on finding these special salts and investigating how they interact with the planet’s atmosphere.
“Mars and Earth are so much alike, with similar minerals,” he says. “If there’s life on Mars, it would still have a dependence on water, but probably in a way we haven’t fully appreciated yet.”
So, could salts be the key to uncovering life on Mars? It’s a fascinating idea—and one that could rewrite how we explore the Red Planet. Instead of following the water, maybe it’s time to follow the salt.
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