Is the Martian Environment Conducive for the Survivability of Life?

Astrobal has spent years studying extreme environments on earth to see if they can be used as models for the martian environment. The antarctic dry valleys of Antarctica are a good example, and so is the atacama desert in south america. These analogue sites help us understand how hardy microorganisms could survive conditions like those found on mars. But als importantly, what signs of life we should be looking for might betray the existence of similar, ultra hardy, bacterial like life forms on Mars.