We're going to spoil Mars before we find other life there...

This is a viewpoint I see all the time:

http://www.helenair.com/articles/200...1030404_05.txt

To consider how silly this is, perform a thought experiment. Take the
long view. NASA sends humans to Mars and finds a microbe that does not
appear to be earthly in origin...After much study the microbe is
declared to be surely of Martian origin! Amazing, a Martian life form
evolving independantly of earth!

Now what? After the initial glow fades, what do we actually learn?
What does it prove, especially if (as it is likely) it uses the same
chemical processes our life does?

I contend little that is worth the heavy effort of ensuring that no
earth life ever 'contaminates' Mars.

Tom Merkle

"Tom Merkle" wrote in message
m...
This is a viewpoint I see all the time:

http://www.helenair.com/articles/200...1030404_05.txt

To consider how silly this is, perform a thought experiment. Take the
long view. NASA sends humans to Mars and finds a microbe that does not
appear to be earthly in origin...After much study the microbe is
declared to be surely of Martian origin! Amazing, a Martian life form
evolving independantly of earth!

Now what? After the initial glow fades, what do we actually learn?
What does it prove, especially if (as it is likely) it uses the same
chemical processes our life does?

I contend little that is worth the heavy effort of ensuring that no
earth life ever 'contaminates' Mars.

The reverse of this last paragraph is also true; that Earth should not be
contamintated by any Martian life forms. For this reason, if it is people,
as opposed to machines like the MER's, that find life on Mars, then those
people should never _never_ return to Earth or have contact with anyone who
will return. Just in case.


--
Alan Erskine
We can get people to the Moon in five years,
not the fifteen GWB proposes.
Give NASA a real challenge

"Tom Merkle" wrote in message
m...
This is a viewpoint I see all the time:

http://www.helenair.com/articles/200...1030404_05.txt

To consider how silly this is, perform a thought experiment. Take the
long view. NASA sends humans to Mars and finds a microbe that does not
appear to be earthly in origin...After much study the microbe is
declared to be surely of Martian origin! Amazing, a Martian life form
evolving independantly of earth!

Now what? After the initial glow fades, what do we actually learn?
What does it prove, especially if (as it is likely) it uses the same
chemical processes our life does?

If life is found, that increases the probability of life elsewhere. We
would look at how similar it is to Earth life -- not just the overall shape,
but the chemistry of it. Does it use DNA? On Earth, life is the way it is
due to random and non-random events. It would be interesting to isolate the
two. If life on all planets has a certain feature, then we know that
evolution tends to create that feature. If a certain feature is different
on different planets, then we would know that random forces play a major
role in the development of that feature. This could provide insight into
the first cells. We could feed Martian life to mice to see what happens to
the mice. Once we've gathered the most important information, it may be OK
to nuke Mars.

(Tom Merkle) writes:

[snip]

Now what? After the initial glow fades, what do we actually learn?
What does it prove, especially if (as it is likely) it uses the same
chemical processes our life does?

Implications for religions and philosophy would be quite interesting.

You'd probably see a huge increase in mars exploration funding
throughout the world. If there are simple bacteria on the surface,
who knows what else might be hidden a little bit deeper (i.e. eventual
evidence of past higher life-forms)

I contend little that is worth the heavy effort of ensuring that no
earth life ever 'contaminates' Mars.

Sure. Let's just make a GIANT parking lot on Mars, so that you can
park your pick-up wherever you like! Getting there would be a minor
annoyance, though, but for sure nothing that couldn't be taken care
of!

Luckily, the majority of people whos oppinion matters think
differently about that topic.


Cheers, alex.

"Alex Pozgaj" wrote in message
...
(i.e. eventual
evidence of past higher life-forms)

There is also a possibility of curent higher life forms deep in Martian
caves.

"Robert Kent" writes:

"Alex Pozgaj" wrote in message
...
(i.e. eventual
evidence of past higher life-forms)

There is also a possibility of curent higher life forms deep in Martian
caves.

Indeed. I just didn't want to go so far... :-)

Cheers, alex.

In article ,
Alan Erskine wrote:
The reverse of this last paragraph is also true; that Earth should not be
contamintated by any Martian life forms.

Almost any such contamination that could ever happen, already has. A
couple of tons of Mars rocks fall on Earth every year, mostly into the
oceans. A small percentage of those rocks have made quite rapid trips,
going from Mars to Earth quickly enough that durable bacteria in their
interiors should survive.
--
MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer
since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. |

"Henry Spencer" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Alan Erskine wrote:
The reverse of this last paragraph is also true; that Earth should not be
contamintated by any Martian life forms.

Almost any such contamination that could ever happen, already has. A
couple of tons of Mars rocks fall on Earth every year, mostly into the
oceans. A small percentage of those rocks have made quite rapid trips,
going from Mars to Earth quickly enough that durable bacteria in their
interiors should survive.

Mars is a dry planet, so oceans could be a bit of a shock to Martian life.
It is possible that Martian bacteria made it to Earth, survived, found food,
and left descendants. It is also possible that this has not occurred any
time in the last billion years. There is more to life than bacteria. Any
event that throws rocks off a planet would be catastrophic to most forms of
life. It can be argued that the first astronauts should spend five years on
Mars as guinea pigs.

Spoil schmoil. A few extremeophiles that might have survived on some
probe from earth would hardly have a global impact on Mars. More
likely there would be some extremely negligable, very local impact
where the probe actually landed.

On a deeper level, is it a bad thing to bring life to a dead or near
dead world? Even if there are a few bugaboos deep underground does
that preclude us from ever bringing Earth life, in many forms, to
Mars? Does that preclude us from genetically engineering life forms
that could survive in the martian environment and produce useful
byproducts such as oxygen?

Sure we need to see what is there before we start exporting life but
if all we find are microbes I believe it is our moral obigation to
bring higher life forms to the rest of our solar system and beyond.


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Alan Erskine wrote:
The reverse of this last paragraph is also true; that Earth should
not be contamintated by any Martian life forms.

Henry Spencer wrote:
Almost any such contamination that could ever happen, already has.
A couple of tons of Mars rocks fall on Earth every year, mostly into
the oceans. A small percentage of those rocks have made quite rapid
trips, going from Mars to Earth quickly enough that durable bacteria
in their interiors should survive.

Indeed, if it turns out that there is, or was, life on Mars, it's more
likely than not that Earth's life originated on Mars, and we're all
descended from Martians.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.