It would be awesome, but it would be terrible if they where not intelligent since we would just take them to do weird experiments.

Doesn't have to be but I think that due to the abundance of carbon in the universe compared to silicon I would personally guess that most life probably in the percentile of the high 90%'s is carbon based.

This does bring up a discussion I've had with biologist friends of mine though about what kind of life could exist and where.

Mars has little atmosphere so perhaps life there evolved no lungs and instead say absorb oxygen through ice crystals in the soil.... Camouflage taking the form of a rock like shell is possible and such animals exist on Earth.

I made an article about it some time ago.
I should make part 2 =/

Animals on Mars 2: The Rocky Boogaloo

I meant this: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=5094

I know I was just cracking a joke is all lol.

Actually its relative to the pressure, the chance of that happenign here is improbable, simply because the earth is buch bigger then mars.
Pressure combined with a moving flux makes it improbable.

That and lifeforms can only come to existence when conditions are met, mars is not a stable climate, the lack of an atmosphere takes care of that, temperature fluctuations are too large to allow any development.

That, and why would they release a pic if it could be top classified XD

Your essentially right about our planet but off on Mars a bit.

The planet Mars does in fact have an atmosphere albeit one to thin to support Earth life. The definition of 'suitable' conditions as well is changing all the time. Mars to a degree could be supporting basic microbial life still. I believe that Saturn's moon Titan is a better candidate for finding alien life. Think of it like Earth but just colder, it has rain fall, oceans and lakes and a thick atmosphere. Despite the fact that the ingredients are different, the body itself is full of organic compounds and carbon.

something is really there then. i believe we will find some kind of creature living in mars. may be not in the form we expect but some other kind of living condition that we are unaware of.

DNA is on of the characteristic of life. Breathing oxygen is not.

well, maybe they have a different kind of data system, could be

Hm it has been considered implausible for an efficient chemical reaction (which can create life though various means) to take place, because it has a specific operating range, qua temperature.
If it fluctuates too hard, no enzymes and stuff can form, they change and are destroyed when overheated

But what if it's not carbon based?

One funny question about mars is "why can't they produce a clearer copy of those pictures?". The technology now is at its peak and still they can't afford to do better studies. It just add doubt to the people.

Chances are big that once there was a time when Mars looked very similar to today's Earth, with oceans, deserts, flora and possibly fauna. I think it's still possible that there's life on Mars at this very moment. The chances are (people think!) rather small, but it's certainly not out of the question.
Simple lifeforms like bacteria are rumoured to be quite common throughout the entire Universe. The meteorite "Allan Hills 84001" contained fossilized bacteria supposedly originated from Mars' surface, but scientists cant be sure as the rock had been laying on Earth for quite some time.
(wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Hills_84001 - worth the time, if you've never heard of this before.