Four Georgia science teams share one mission: Getting us to Mars

An excerpt from the article:

Using all of this “spectral evidence,” which Wray likens to a “fingerprint, signature, or a criminal’s calling card,” the researchers discovered something sure to usher in a momentous new Space Age: flowing water on Mars. The perchlorate was keeping it from freezing, acting like salt on an icy sidewalk. Mars apparently was weeping salty tears, some a meter wide. You might be able to make mud pies in them, but you wouldn’t want to drink from those brooks, at least not in their current saline form. Moreover, perchlorate has another useful and fateful-sounding feature: It can function as rocket propellant. Says Wray, “I honestly don’t know if this is good news or bad news for the idea of supporting life, but it was certainly news."

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