THE first person to one day travel to Mars is likely already living on Earth, a chief NASA scientist says.

The revelation comes just days after “building blocks of life” were discovered on the planet.

In two separate studies on data collected by the Mars rover over the last few years, scientists identified an abundant source of organic matter in an ancient lakebed, and traced some of the planet’s atmospheric methane to its roots.

The groundbreaking results will help to guide the search for microbial life and improve our understanding of seasonal processes on Mars.

Humans will “absolutely” be on Mars in the future, Jim Green told USA TODAY in an interview.

The Curiosity rover extracted and heated samples from Mojave and Confidence Hills in the Gale Crater — both of which are known to contain mudstones dating back roughly 3 billion years.

This revealed the presence of molecules that resembled organic-rich sedimentary rock found on Earth, according to the team, including thiophenes, benzene, toluene, and small carbon chains, such as propane or butene.

While the latest discovery may not mean Curiosity has found evidence of ancient life on Mars just yet, it is a promising step forward ahead of missions that plan to dig even deeper into the Martian soil and a “good sign” of the planet’s ancient habitability, the researchers say.

“Now, we see Mars is an even better location for having past life,” Green said. “It’s just getting better and better.”

Researchers hope to have a human on the planet by 2040, though that is dependent on quite a few factors, according to Green.

For a human to land on Mars, it needs to be possible to land about 10 tons of material on the surface. Right now, NASA has been able to land a one-ton vehicle.

NASA also needs to develop the technology to blast off from Mars and return to Earth. The Mars 2020 rover hopefully will achieve this goal.

“Sometime in the next decade, we plan to blast off the surface of Mars and return,” Green said.

The largest obstacle is potentially building an entire infrastructure. “The people that would go there are real pioneers,” Green said.

Much like in the movie “The Martian,” humans on Mars would need to be able to farm and establish sources of food.

“The new findings reinforce our conclusions that there is Marian organic matter in the ancient sediments and they tell us about how the organic molecules are preserved in the rocks,” explained lead author and astrobiologist Dr. Jennifer L. Eigenbrode.

“The detection of organic matter in rocks from an ancient habitable environment on Mars bode well for the future search for life on Mars.

“Organic matter could come from life, but the presence of organics is not evidence for life, since organics can also come from non-life processes,” Eigenbrode said.

(SD-Agencies)