A Tufts University chemist who heads the team interpreting data gathered by the Phoenix lander's wet-chemistry lab alleges that the Martian soil in the area where NASA's contraption landed "seems very friendly" to simple forms of life.

Scientists are almost sure there is ice underneath the Red Planet's surface, and they say they found a lot of minerals which are the building blocks of organic life. However, the high concentration of minerals is not good news.

Back in February, NASA announced that it is very less likely that life on the fourth planet of the Sun was ever possible. Scientists said at the time that the high concentration of minerals constitutes a harsh environment even for the toughest microbes. The conclusion regarding the possibility of life on Mars in an extremely salty environment came after scientists conducted a series of experiments by simulating the Martian conditions.

It's quite clear that at this point NASA will attempt to present the positive side of their findings, given the immense costs of Mars missions. The soil appears to be mildly alkaline, which is the favorite environment for some vegetables.

The real question is now, when it's quite clear that there are no Martians on Mars, whether the Red Planet might be used to build some sort of human outpost on it. For this to happen, NASA will have to send robots many years in advance to build a habitable environment, which would include systems to prepare water and oxygen. Probably the most challenging part would be to manufacture fuel for the trip back to Earth.

Robotic building might be tested in a lunar mission sometime within the next decade or two. A manned Mars mission is thus at least decades away.

Human colonies on Mars have been also the subject of this April's Fools Day prank by Google and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson. Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin heroically announced on April 1 that they had joined forces in an attempt to lead hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars.