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Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: A "Must-Read" Article - desolate Earth locale/Marsian life

http://www.astronomy.com/Content/Dynami … i.asp]Read Me

*Wow, this is fascinating (partial quote):

"Desolate Earth locale offers insight on martian life
Viking-like experiments find no signs of life in the driest area on Earth.
by Matt Quandt

Viking 1's biology experiments revealed lifeless conditions similar to those in the Atacama Desert.
NASA / JPL

To help put into perspective the results of past experiments that have failed to detect life on the Red Planet, an international team of scientists has conducted tests in the driest place on Earth, the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. The arid conditions of the Atacama Desert provide scientists an environment similar to Mars, and as it turns out, the terrestrial tests resulted in a similar negative returns, finding no signs of life."

*This definitely reopens (or at least keeps open) the issue as related to Mars!  Who would have thought a location on -Earth- (of all places!) could return negative results, as life detection goes? 

Also:  "'The Atacama is the only place on Earth that I’ve taken soil samples to grow microorganisms back at the lab and nothing whatsoever grew,' says Fred Rainey, a Louisiana State University team member who studies microorganisms in extreme environments."

*But Earth otherwise is generally lush with life, as of course we all know.  What might this say for terraformation prospects on Mars, I wonder.

--Cindy

*An article about http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … 532005]Zoe, the solar-powered rover exploring the Atacama Desert.  :up:

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,431

Re: A "Must-Read" Article - desolate Earth locale/Marsian life

simular article were posted also on Robot Finds Life in Desert, Mimicking Skills Needed on Mars and on Robot-based system developed at Carnegie Mellon detects life in Chile's Atacama desert
[url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05074/471530.stm] CMU Robot finds life 'all by itself'
Practice run by device may lead to Mars trip[/url]
I like the photo of it in this last one(side view).

So the means to detect life robotically can be done, then all that is needed is to package it up for the next flight.
Make two and double your pleasure...