Scientists have predicted that NASA's Curiosity rover could find some kind of organic compound on Mars, which was set to be the most important mission of the Martian rover.

Carol Stoker, a staff planetary scientist at NASA told space.com recently that "Curiosity has the ability to detect organic compounds."

Stoker said similar instruments -- the Viking and Phoenix spacecraft -- were carried on previous NASA Mars landers, but failed to detect organics, setting lower limits on the presence of organics at very low values.

Stoker stressed that Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars Suite Investigation is using a better method, "so it may discover organics on Mars that Viking and Phoenix missed."

Alfonso Davila, senior research scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California has told SPACE.com that it would be a turning point in the search for life on Mars if Curiosity finds organics.

He also said that if or when Curiosity establishes that it has the capability to detect organics near the Mars surface, "then the focus should turn to understanding the nature and the origin of those organics, and to establish whether they are linked to life."

The expectation for Curiosity to find some signs of life is high as demonstrated by U.S. President Barack Obama, who asked scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California on Aug. 13 in a telephone call.

"If, in fact, you do make contact with Martians, please let me know right away," Obama joked then. "Even if they're just microbes, it will be pretty exciting."

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