The secret to surviving the Red Planet might be swimming, buzzing, and crawling around us already.

Space agencies have sent everything from fruit flies to monkeys into orbit, but the conversation about Mars colonization has taken an unexpected turn toward practical survival. With NASA targeting human missions to Mars by the 2030s, researchers are seriously considering which Earth creatures could help astronauts establish sustainable life on the Red Planet. After analyzing decades of space biology experiments and consulting with Mars mission planners, a fascinating pattern emerges from the data.