Rocco Mancinelli, PI of NAI's Emeritus Team at the SETI Institute, will use a zeppelin airship to observe red salt ponds turn green while the environment is changed from near-Martian conditions into wetlands. Work will begin next year on a decades-long project to restore thousands of acres of industrial salt-harvesting ponds in San Francisco Bay into native wetland habitat. The ponds are colored red because of the color of microbes that flourish in the extremely salty conditions. Green microbes will replace red ones as the wetlands are restored.

For more information: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Salt-ponds-could-be-clue-to-life-on-Mars-79280337.html [Source NAI Newsletter]