This week’s Question: The Curiosity rover, NASA’s biggest extraterrestrial explorer, was launched toward Mars last week. The mobile laboratory, 10 feet long by 9 feet wide, will search for evidence that the planet was once hospitable to microbrial life. The device’s on-board instruments are designed to hunt for organic compounds.
What do you think? Will the rover reveal that Mars might once have been hospitable for microbial life — or might even still be conducive to life?
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Yes, based on previous findings on Mars. It is possible the Curiosity rover may find organic compounds. Considering how life evolves in adverse environments here on earth such as in the Antarctic or at great ocean depths, living organisms could evolve in Mars adverse conditions.
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Does it matter, if they find what they look for it will be good, if they don’t it will be good, either will add to the knowledge that we have or think we have. What really matters is we are still looking outward toward a future where we can develop beyond our current place. What garderner plants only one seed and waits to see what happens. Most likely if there is one he is a failure, lets hope we aren’t.
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Life in the past, Yes. Existing life, No.
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The Curiosity Rover could find materials with molecular chains that contain C,H,O but it depends on how deep the rover digs into the soil. The scientific evidence gathered on Mars suggests that there is an oxidant in the top soil which can turn carbon containing compounds (organics) into carbon dioxide. The top soil on earth is typically only a foot deep; if Mars is anything like earth, the top layer of soil will change in nature close to the surface. That oxidant may not be present deeper under ground. I hope they designed the rover with a telescopic auger with the ability to dig deep; else we may find more of the same – metallic dust.
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Mars had lots of water at one time. It has no magnetic properties so the atmosphere was neither ever created or was loss due to particles leaving the planet into space. Same is happening on earth but at a slower pace. So for a short period of time, Mars would have been conducive to life. I believe that it once had an atmosphere. With all the water, life would have been at minimum in the oceans of Mars. Sometimes I think that this was the big FLOOD talked about in the bible was actually on Mars so NOAH jumped in his spaceship (ARK) and came to earth. With the demise of a hospitable environment on earth, man here may be looking for other place to go. I am sure that nature repeats itself across the universe.
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It is not a question of whether their is, was or will be life on Mars. it is a question of whether the findings will be revealed or not. As it stands, the landings occur in what are deemed “places where life may occur”. We are presented with camera views of desolate areas, but we never get to see infrared pictures of the sky, or night areas around the Rovers. We never get to see time lapse photography of any of the areas surrounding the Rovers, and most of all, we never get to see any of the raw data coming from the Rovers during a sampling. Just like the cameras and video links failed on the space station and the shuttle any time something strange happened to cross their path, so do the Rovers.
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The idea is that there is/was a >>terrestrial<< form of life, one based on C, Si, etc. But – is this the only form of life possible? Maybe there is/was life of a different form, which we cannot even recognize. So, it is highly questionable that the rover will find anything.
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We look for life as we understand it from empirical evidence. Thus far, evidence indicates that simple microbial life is all that survives in Earth’s severest environments/habitats. So it is reasonable to expect that the most likely type of life to thrive in the harsh environment on Mars would be similiar to terrestrial life in a similar Earth environment.
To anyone with a basic understanding of chemistry and biology, the probability of matter (or even energy?) constituting an inorganic form of life (independent of carbon) must appear slim, given the limits of the elements as defined in the periodic table. And PROBABILITY is the key, not POSSIBILITY.When we fantasize about a life form that we cannot recognize, we could leap beyond the definition of life. We might be treading into a domain beyond this universe – somewhere else in the “multiverse.” But Mars is in our universe.
We can only look for that which we know. If we are looking for something else, then we don’t know what we’re looking for. I hope the Congress would not fund a project that stupid.
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It is possible that a lifeform could be found still thriving. We discover new ones here on Earth in areas we would not expect. Will it be something we don’t recognize? Maybe. Time will tell.
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