Why is it so very important they we discover life on another planet, such as Mars?

Question

Whenever I see programs about missions to Mars, the primary mission always seems to be to find out whether life exists on Mars. This purpose is expressed in the most emphatic terms. But WHY is this so important? What do we gain from this discovery? Why is this goal important enough to spend many billions of dollars? What's the real answer?

Answer 1

1. It would answer one of the greatest philosophical questions of our time.

2. Same as 1. but scientific instead of philosophical.

3. Knowledge of ANY alien biochemistry would upen up an entirely new way of looking at our own Earthbound life, and possibly lead to huge leaps forward in our understanding of sciences like genetics, medicine, other aspects of biology...

Any of which is worth a huge price.  Suddenly our "statistical sample" of life in the universe would double.  If we found life in an environment we consider "hostile," the chances of finding it elsewhere, and in more advanced forms, increases exponentially.  Our odds of finding intelligent life somewhere go up considerably.  And what we could learn if that happens... is truly astronomical in potential.

In other words, it has the potential to completely revolutionize life as we know it.

Answer 2

ok if our world ever "dies" and cant substain life then i guess we are gonna need somewhere else to go. plus it would be awesome to find life somewhere else.

Answer 3

When we find alien life, we must conquer it at all costs for the American Way!

Answer 4

To find out how life came to be on this planet. If we find anything on other planets, moons, whatever, then we can establish better theories on how life begins.

Answer 5

For one, it would prove beyond a doubt that life is not unique to earth. If life can exist on Mars, why not on other planets out side our own solar system as well?

Answer 6

closure, we need to know weather or not we are alone.

Answer 7

The more we know about life on other planets, the more we know about life on Earth...how life originates, how it evolves and most impotantly, how it survives.

Answer 8

It would really be nice to discover life that did not originate on the Earth. We only have one reference for life at moment.  It's all related to us.  An alternate origin might give us clues on how life originated.

So, cooler than finding life on Mars would be discovering how life started on Earth.

Answer 9

It isn't important at all.  Somewhat interesting to most people.  But not very.  Several years ago it was announced that a martian meteor found in Antarctica had fossils in it.  There was some news coverage.  It made the cover of one of the news magazines.  But no one got really excited.  Everyone lost interest until it was announced that maybe the fossils weren't fossils after all.  They were too small and could be perfectly natural geologic artifacts.  A brief revival in the news followed by complete and total silence.  Obviously not very important.   Such a real discovery might prove Career enhancing to some astrobiologists.  It would be a source of material for dissertations for generations of biology students.  But unless somehow it was released into the earths environment where it multiplied and started eating people, it would not be important to the vast majority of the population.  It would trigger no great religious debates or riots.