As humanity enters a transformative era of Mars exploration, guided by NASA's Moon-to-Mars roadmap, rapid advances in commercial spaceflight, and the National Academies' Science Strategy for the Human Exploration of Mars (2025), we approach a pivotal moment in the search for extraterrestrial life. Recent in-situ observations from Jezero crater have produced a potential biosignature in fine-grained sediments, while new laboratory studies indicate that relatively pure Martian ice could preserve organic molecules for geologically significant timescales. Together, these developments elevate the near-term stakes: they sharpen targets, raise the bar for planetary protection, and intensify public a... More >