What Is The Goal Of Studying The Possibility Of Life On Mars?

The possibility of finding life on another Planet such as Mars has captivated humanity for many years. We as a race are always striving to find answers to numerous questions, but the most important one to date is, is there any life out there? and if there is, what form will it take? and will it be intelligent? Could we as a race meet E.T. on an equal footing, or will we go in with all guns blazing, and either destroy E.T. or be destroyed by them!! I seriously hope that we are not alone because the Universe is a very dark and lonely place.

I think scientists want to find out if we are alone in the universe or not and if they can find out whether there was life on mars then they may be able to find out if there is life outside of our galaxy. The problem is if they do find life, what will they do about it?