How would life on Mars change out outlook on a manned mission?

[FishInferno]

So recently Curiosity found the fluctuating Methane and stuff, and it got me thinking: If we DID prove that life existed on Mars, would that make us more or less eager to land people there?

I can imagine two points of view:

a) Humans should go to Mars to further investigate this new discovery.

Humans shouldm't go to Mars to avoid disturbing whatever ecosystem is established.

I personally would go with option a.

[G'th]

Depends on what kind of life it is. You won't get really big support from the public unless its a form of life that's interesting to the layperson.

[pxi]

It depends - is it tasty?

[ZooNamedGames]

I agree with option B but I fallback to my belief of "alien life". It will most likely be something simple like fungi or moss... unlikely of there being a "Ecosystem"- and if I'M correct- then I'd fall back to option A since you really cant disturb moss much... so I'd collect it and ditch. Maybe make a hab mission but keep it VEEEERRYY contained make .0000001% of any contact with the outside world.

Lastly- spelling and grammar errors galore! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[Kryten]

It'd move MSR well up priority lists, but crewed landing would still be far too expensive.

[FishInferno]

I agree with option B but I fallback to my belief of "alien life". It will most likely be something simple like fungi or moss... unlikely of there being a "Ecosystem"- and if I'M correct- then I'd fall back to option A since you really cant disturb moss much... so I'd collect it and ditch. Maybe make a hab mission but keep it VEEEERRYY contained make .0000001% of any contact with the outside world.

Lastly- spelling and grammar errors galore! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

There would have to be SOME form of an ecosystem to support life

[ZooNamedGames]

There would have to be SOME form of an ecosystem to support life

Not necessarily. Mosses can grow in limited environments... We've got mosses in space... it's possible...

Besides- the chances of life growing BEYOND a simplistic form of life such as plants and so forth is unlikely... Earth is a VEEEEEEEERRYYYYYYYYYYY big oddball. Base it on possibilities then we ARE the 1:1000000000000000000000000000 ratio... and we rolled the right number... wont happen again so easily and if we do- we wont get the same effect.

[FishInferno]

Not necessarily. Mosses can grow in limited environments... We've got mosses in space... it's possible...

Besides- the chances of life growing BEYOND a simplistic form of life such as plants and so forth is unlikely... Earth is a VEEEEEEEERRYYYYYYYYYYY big oddball. Base it on possibilities then we ARE the 1:1000000000000000000000000000 ratio... and we rolled the right number... wont happen again so easily and if we do- we wont get the same effect.

Ehh i guess its really unknown for now. One of the things that really irks me is that people tend to assume that extraterrestrial life would behave the same/require the same conditions as life on Earth. Who says that life cant exist on X because X is too extreme or X chemical isn't preset.

Happy NEw Year BTW

[78stonewobble]

Ehh i guess its really unknown for now. One of the things that really irks me is that people tend to assume that extraterrestrial life would behave the same/require the same conditions as life on Earth. Who says that life cant exist on X because X is too extreme or X chemical isn't preset.

Happy NEw Year BTW

It's not entirely an unreasonably assumption, since it is based on the tolerances for the only life we know. That might not be the whole story tho...

[Ralathon]

Besides- the chances of life growing BEYOND a simplistic form of life such as plants and so forth is unlikely... Earth is a VEEEEEEEERRYYYYYYYYYYY big oddball. Base it on possibilities then we ARE the 1:1000000000000000000000000000 ratio... and we rolled the right number... wont happen again so easily and if we do- we wont get the same effect.

How do you know this? We have 1 sample in our category 'life bearing planets'. Any statistician will tell you that you can't calculate odds from 1 sample.

[Torquemadus]

Mars had liquid water for roughly a billion years or so. It should have had the correct chemistry to allow life to emerge.

Mars and Earth have been trading meteorites throughout their histories. Rocks have been blasted off the surface of both planets by asteroid impacts and have travelled through space before falling as meteorites. Despite what happens to the outside of the meteorite, the inside of the rock remains unsterilized. Mars was being hit by unsterilized rocks from Earth containing microbes at a time when it was capable of supporting life. Any microbes that may have evolved on Mars during the same warm and wet period would also have ended up on Earth.

Mars is known to have geothermally heated subsurface water. Life can easily survive and thrive in such conditions on Earth, so if there was ever life on Mars in the part, it's perfectly reasonable to expect to find it still living in subsurface water today. The geologically active areas on Mars where we would expect to find such water are releasing methane into the atmosphere. The source of this methane could be geological or biological, but either way, we know that the required geological conditions are present. The only way to know for sure whether there is microbial life in that water today is to use a drilling rig to drill down to the water and take samples.

If found, life on Mars may turn out to be descended from ancient Earth microbes that survived the trip to Mars inside a meteorite and subsequently took hold on Mars. In this case, there would be strong arguments for restoring Mars to a warm wet state through terraforming so that life from Earth can once again thrive there.

An even greater discovery would be life descended from a completely separate genesis on Mars. All living things on Earth are descended from an ancient microbial common ancestor. If life on Mars was descended from a different ancestor, we would then have two samples of life that emerged independently on adjacent planets. This would prove beyond all doubt that life is extremely common in the universe. Studying alien Martian life would be of immense scientific value and would likely lead to all manner of medical breakthroughs.

The final possibility is that Mars might turn out to be sterile. This would support the point of view that life is comparatively rare in the universe and is worth going to great lengths to protect. This would place a burden of responsibility on humans to spread the gift of life across an otherwise dead and empty universe by seeding life on new worlds.

Regardless of whether Mars have life now, it most certainly can have life in the future.

[BriXman]

Ehh i guess its really unknown for now. One of the things that really irks me is that people tend to assume that extraterrestrial life would behave the same/require the same conditions as life on Earth. Who says that life cant exist on X because X is too extreme or X chemical isn't preset.

Happy NEw Year BTW

As you say, "life" might only be "life" on Earth, it can be completely different on other worlds. Maybe lif eon other planets don't need a breathable atmosphere, maybe it doesn't need the correct temperature that our life needs.

[Gordon861]

If we had proof that life was there or had been there we would have to investigate further. It would answer or ask too many questions depending on what we find. The research would also have to be done away from the Earth due to the possible risks that it could pose to the planet.

If it turns out the biology is very similar/compatible with life on Earth we then have two options common initial source or parallel evolution, either answer would reinvigorate the further exploration of space.

And even if it turns out to be totally different to anything we have seen before it would still have the same effect.

[Bill Phil]

What if we find microbial life, explore Mars with bases and stuff, and find an alien ship capable of warp? Endurium? Or a Prothean Ship, perhaps?

In all seriousness, microbial life would be a problem. Done religion's belief are founded on the Earth being the only life-bearing world in the Universe. Riots, executions, and worse could ensue. However, we should find out if there was life there, anyways. Even if there was only past life, it's more than no life.

[Technical Ben]

Life changes the things around it. We see land and seas streaming with life. We see trees and algae, we see the greens and other colours. Life is not hard to find. The absence of the observation of life, suggests the absence of life.

If we found life? Our outlook would probably change as much as it did when we rediscovered the new continents (America/Australia etc). IE, very little.

[Torquemadus]

Done religion's belief are founded on the Earth being the only life-bearing world in the Universe.

Without going into excessive detail, there has been a theological debate ever since the emergence of Neolithic technology over whether humans should be subject to a static order of nature and obey the "will of the gods", or whether they should attempt to modify their environment to make the Earth more habitable for humans. The creation stories prevalent in western religions depict early humans either as slaves, who must obey the will of the "gods", or as farmers and "gardeners" who are charged with the task of controlling nature to make the Earth more habitable. The first humans are never depicted as paleolithic hunter gatherers.

The first argument says that humans should submit to the "will of the gods" and by extension to the will of the religious teachers and rulers that the "gods" appoint to control our lives. The second and very controversial idea is the idea that humans were meant to be intelligent and to possess free will. In the second version of events, humans are meant to become masters of their environment and are meant to "be fruitful and multiply".

Think of all of the prophecies of doom that tell us that human meddling with technology and with nature will result in a retaliation that will punish us for attempting to evolve to become better than we are now. Our doom is often depicted as coming from intelligent Frankenstein machines or artificial intelligences that will punish us for daring to become scientifically and technologically literate. "No good will come of this!". Dare to become something better than we are now, dare to overcome the problems that we face today as a species and solve the scourges of poverty, hunger, disease and war, and the universe will turn around and punish us for our insolence. We mustn't at all costs go into space, the dangers are too great and the universe itself will punish us for harbouring ideas above our station.

Scott Carpenter derided the brigade of what he called "professional naysayers", who insisted that spaceflight must be fatal to man. There will always be those who insist that human spaceflight is too hard and must be put off forever.

[ZooNamedGames]

How do you know this? We have 1 sample in our category 'life bearing planets'. Any statistician will tell you that you can't calculate odds from 1 sample.

We cannot rely on 1 sample however we have seen nothing to SUPPORT OUR OWN sample much less any other. So regardless- Earth is practically an impossibility.

[Bill Phil]

Chances are Earth is mediocre. The universe is just so big...

[Drunken Hobo]

Ehh i guess its really unknown for now. One of the things that really irks me is that people tend to assume that extraterrestrial life would behave the same/require the same conditions as life on Earth. Who says that life cant exist on X because X is too extreme or X chemical isn't preset.

Happy NEw Year BTW

It's mostly because our life has some pretty basic requirements. Water is extremely common in the universe and has many properties that make it ideal for life. Other compounds with similar properties - such as ammonia - are less common and less stable, making ammonia-based life less likely. That means you're more likely to find life in conditions where water is liquid.

Carbon is also very common in the universe and is an ideal element to base something like DNA on, as it is stable in long chains. Alternatives such as silicon are less stable, and boron is pretty uncommon compared to carbon.

Water/carbon-based life on a wet temperate terrestrial planet with an atmosphere is probably the easiest solution you could hope for.

[78stonewobble]

We cannot rely on 1 sample however we have seen nothing to SUPPORT OUR OWN sample much less any other. So regardless- Earth is practically an impossibility.

That does seem a bit overly "negative" (or "positive" dependent on your view of alien life). Considering that we just about only have some decent knowledge about planets in the solar system and just about only knowledge about the existence of planets of a few relatively nearby starsystems (out of 100-400 billion stars in the milkyway alone). IMHO. we don't have enough information to conclude that life is a practical impossibility.

My personal "conclusion", so far, is just that... Life is possible, as evidenced by the Earth, but whether it's relative commonplace, relatively rare, rare, exceedingly rare or just 1 random fluke (practical impossibility elsewhere) would be a guess so far.