In May 25.th the robotic space craft Phoenix are landing on Mars, ready to search for clues of life in the ice beneath the surface. This is a very, very exciting mission.
Three spacecrafts are orbiting Mars at the right time and right place in order to listen to what Phoenix will discover and relay the data back to earth. Phoenix will operate for three months.

During the years we have put a lot of probes and robots on Mars. This new earthly robot will not be alone down there, since Spirit and Opportunity, most likely still operates or are operabable. But that is not the most important about this.

Phoenix was launched august 4.th 2007 and will land far north on Mars, in an area which are supposed to have frozen water mixed with soil just below the surface. NASA says this is the place to go if you are searching for a habitable zone in the arctic permafrost. Phoenix has an robotic arm which will collect samples of soil and ice and analyze them in laboratory instruments. This can shed light into some of Mars mysteries, perhaps to find evidence if the site ever had conditions favorable for supporting microbial life.

But which consequences would a positive finding have? What will happen the day we actually find a kind of alien life on other planets, or space objects? The philosophical challenge would have been enormous. The religious consequences would have been beyond imagination. For science this would have been the best Christmas present ever, obviously. But which impacts would it have upon the rest of us?

I believe all major world religions, after getting back their breath and fought against denial, would have tried to embed the discovery into their cosmology. New sects will emerge, and the whole New Age wave would have benefitted significantly. I am also pretty sure that we would experience wide range political changes throughout the world, and old theocracies will lose power, among all state leaders who claims they are divine supported, like George Bush. The world, as we know it, will change forever.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Calech/University of Arizona

• Read more about the Phoenix project here