Anthropologists Want to Catalog All Human Artifacts Left on Mars

Anthropologists are urging space organizations to develop a record of all human-made artifacts that end up on Mars' surface. This catalog, they argue, would help document mankind's efforts to hop from planet to planet as space travel and exploration continue to advance.

In a paper for Nature Astronomy, researchers at the University of Kansas, New Mexico State University, North Carolina State University, and Spain's Centro de Astrobiología declare an "emerging archaeological record of Mars"—that is, a growing list of physical, human-made impressions on the Red Planet. Since the Soviet Union's Mars 2 probe crashed on Mars' surface in 1971, humans have left a range of artifacts on the planet's dusty surface. This growing list of artifacts serves as a museum of sorts, depicting humans' attempts to reach planets completely unlike our own.

But therein lies the problem: There is no official list. And that's ...