Recently, NASA announced that the Mars Perseverance rover has found indications that life may have at one time existed on the Red Planet. The announcement did not mark the first time the space agency had announced life on Mars.

If it pans out, it may complicate Elon Musk’s dreams of founding a settlement on the fourth planet from the sun.

The idea that NASA may (and we must emphasize the word “may”) have found evidence of life on Mars could be history-changing. Scientists have always thought that Earth is not the only place in the universe where life emerged. The possible findings of the Mars Perseverance rover might confirm that supposition.

According to Space.com, Mars Perseverance found minerals in the western edge of Jezero Crater that might be the result of microbes consuming organic matter. The caveat that scientists offer is that the minerals might also have been created by non-organic processes — which is to say it may not be proof of life on Mars.

The news gives one a sense of déjà vu. Back in the mid-1970s, the Viking landers, the first human-made objects to have soft landed on Mars, also may have found indications of........

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