Abstract
In search for life on Mars, machines can boldly go where humans can't." is the headline in the January 5th, 2004, Science Section of the New York Times, and epitomizes the extraordinary fascination with Mars. We in the Radioscience Group are not immune to the excitement having spent many an evening last year and now this up at the Big Dish tracking Mars finding the very weak UHF signals from the orbiters and searching vainly for signals from lost landers. I'll tell some of this story and place it in the context of the current Mars missions, and pay attention as well to the search for water and the prospects for discovery of ancient and present life on Mars.