UNCOVERING THE SECRETS OF MARS

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Whatever shape NASA's future missions take, for now the attention of the agency and the world is on Pathfinder. The data it will be sending back this week may help us understand better that most profound of all mysteries: Did life ever exist anywhere else in the cosmos? Already Pathfinder has revived morale in the global space community. More important, it continued the only known cultural-exchange program anywhere in the cosmos. Mars and Earth, after all, have been throwing rocks and machines at each other for eons. Last summer an ancient Martian meteorite gave the creatures of Earth the first compelling evidence of life beyond our own. This summer the creatures on Earth answered back, sending our sister planet evidence not just that terrestrial life exists, but that it is--when it tries to be--wonderfully intelligent.

--Reported by Dan Cray/Pasadena and Joanna Downer and Dick Thompson/Washington