I've been reading a few articles on the search for life on mars, since there is that new idea that we squashed evidence of life with the Viking probe in '76 because it didn't know what to look for....or something like that. Anyway, I got to thinking: Who cares? Not to be a killjoy, but unless I missed something the only life they are potentially discovering is bacteria/primordial soup. That's all well and good and is very important to development and evolution and all that, call me when we find intelligent life....or it finds us. Which is theoretically impossible due to distance. Hooray.


Your thoughts.

If there is life on mars then it can evolve and in a couple billion years they may try to invade the earth. Since we are a couple billion years ahead of them in the evolutionary process we should be ok though.

I hear there's great crack climbing on Mars. Trying to get Richard Branson to arrange a Virgin Mars rock climbing tour.

i agree, with nasa spending billions of dollars to find the remains of what might have been life is fucking stupid. new orleans could have used some of that money, the fight against aids and cancers could use that money and technology, and lastly our school system in the US could have used that money. we have life here that needs help, fuck the notion that bacteria is going to help "our evolutional path" bullshit. its a waste of time, money, and its never going to find shit

Of course the money could go to other things, more humane things, but as far as I'm concerned, USA have never been really good at prioritise where the money should go...

To the OP. I think it's a good thing. Though I seem to be the only one. Life on Mars means (or at least strongly incicates) that life is something that "just happens" if the conditions are right and unimaginable long time pass by. And that would mean that there are like a zillion planets out there with life on 'em. And if only fraction of those were intelligent life forms then maybe... one day.

But I'm not even sure that 'contact' is the goal here. It would be nice just to know that we are not alone. And also, it would make every single religious creation story seem even more improbable, so maybe it would have some uniting effect as well.

they have made some assumptions about life on one of the other planets in a sea under the surface, although i forget which planet it is.

I think you mean Saturn's moon Triton.


I reckon it'd be cool if they found "life" on another world, but they should indeed leave it where it is. For every organism that provides a cure for our problems here on Earth, I'm sure there would be a thousand that could infect and destroy us.

yup, that's the one!!!!

and i agree. kind of like that space bacteria that eats....everything. And maybe we would have the same effect on them??? Like europeans and native americans.

Unicellular Martians would have a harsh time trying to live here on Earth anyway.... too much water vapour.... they'd over-hydrate in an instant.... unless they were placed in the Atacama or something like that.

kachoong and pjdf,

europa was the one i was actually thinking of. I guess there is an ice shell on the planet with crack that periodically open, fill with water and refreeze.


pjdf,
Maybe NASA is pushing towards exploration more because they are looking at inhabiting mars in the future? Maybe having a backup plan when earth implodes is higher on their list of priorities then trying to figure earth out itself????


good discussion!



Brent

It saddens me that NASA is shifting its funding towards exploration and away from science at this time.

I'm glad to see it taking a step towards exploration, though. The experiments on the ISS are great but realistically the stuff they are testing would be better tested on the moon with some gravity or a planet with a different atmosphere.