New Mars Forums

elderflower

Member

Registered: 2016-06-19

Posts: 1,262

Re: Past and Present life on Mars

There seems to be a distinct danger that we shall never find out about Mars life as we shan't be allowed to go because we might contaminate Mars, so threatening putative Mars organisms with Earth organisms.
This view ignores the exchange of meteorites between the two bodies over the past three and a half billion years or so.

Oldfart1939

Member

Registered: 2016-11-26

Posts: 2,451

Re: Past and Present life on Mars

BITD, that view was only held by extreme "Ecofreaks." It's now become a bit more popular, but remains irrational.

Tmcom

Member

Registered: 2017-03-02

Posts: 840

Re: Past and Present life on Mars

My first post here, interesting threads.

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: Past and Present life on Mars

Are earthlings alone in the universe? JPL’s new director wants to find out
https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/greater … osity-mars

Scientists propose Ceres sample return mission
https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/miss … n-mission/

Panspermia  is the hypothesis, first proposed in the 5th century BC by the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras, that life exists throughout the Universe, distributed by space dust, meteoroids, asteroids, comets, and planetoids, as well as by spacecraft carrying unintended contamination by microorganisms.

PDF

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/abscic … f/5224.pdf

Calliban

Member

From: Northern England, UK

Registered: 2019-08-18

Posts: 3,789

Re: Past and Present life on Mars

The latest video from Anton Petrov is very interesting.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rMViRJPqUkM

Something on Mars is generating complex organic molecules.  These are rapidly destroyed by the highly oxidising conditions on Mars.  Their existance can only be explained by some mechanism that continuously replenishes them.

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"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: Past and Present life on Mars

If the Perseverance rover found evidence of life on Mars, would we recognize it?
https://www.space.com/perseverance-rove … -difficult

Mars_B4_Moon

Member

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 9,776

Re: Past and Present life on Mars

Was There Life on Mars

https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Was_ … s_999.html

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,431

Re: Past and Present life on Mars

The study challenges the notion of Mars as a dormant and geologically inactive planet

GW Johnson

Member

From: McGregor, Texas USA

Registered: 2011-12-04

Posts: 5,796

Website

Re: Past and Present life on Mars

From AIAA’s “Daily Launch” for 6 May 2024

SPACE

Long ago, a lake on Mars might have been sprawling with microbes

The Curiosity Mars rover has detected intriguing chemical evidence, in the form of anomalous amounts of manganese oxide, which points to Mars having had not only a habitable environment billions of years ago, but also one possibly inhabited by microbes.

Title leads to Space.com,  for full article

Gist:  excess mag oxide concentration found in lake sediments similar to deposits on Earth that require oxygen in the water.  On Earth,  that oxygen comes from life. 

GW

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GW Johnson
McGregor,  Texas

"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew,  especially one dead from a bad management decision"