>We could then put Mars in the same category as the Moon when it comes to the life hypothesis. This is not the case - so I'd say a search for evidence of life o

>We could then put Mars in the same category as the Moon when it comes to the life hypothesis. This is not the case - so I'd say a search for evidence of life on Mars (past or even present) is justified. Of course searching for evidence of current or past life on Mars is justified. But there is a huge difference between searching for evidence, and declaring every anomalous discovery to be potential evidence. In addition, the hypothesis "a technological civilization has lived on/visited/probed Mars" is a minuscule subset of the hypothesis "there is, or has been, some form of life on Mars".