A quick look at Mars can give us a rough idea of what our own planet was like around 4 billion years ago. Though there were oceans, Earth was a desolate place. Then life developed and filled the barren seas and landscapes with a flourishing, continuously evolving biodiversity.

We owe these close-range observations to the latest generation of Mars rovers, equipped with high‑resolution cameras. In 2025, two of these mobile research labs are being operated by NASA.

Among other things, they are looking for fossil traces of past life under the surface, since the planet Mars also once had an atmosphere and liquid water.