Yes, Mars is quite a sight these days! Even brighter than Venus they are saying - of course it is at it's closest approach to Earth right now for the next 10 years or so, so no wonder.
I too look forward to further study of Mars and the possibility of life having arose there in the distant past. We are already pretty sure that Mars had running water long ago and that is a significant piece of evidence for past life. I don't know about finding fossils though - we'd have to start some serious digging/excavating I fear... unless one of the rovers operating there happen to stumble across something unambiguous. Also, I'm not sure about the conditions on Mars that would allow fossils to form - that is, would those processes required for fossils to form be similar to those on Earth? I'm fairly ignorant in that area. But I'm still hopeful that we'll find more evidence of some form or another of life on Mars in the past - maybe even some form of bacterial life now that is hiding underground somewhere.
