Meet the Martians

ThatOwlWoman said:
Yet we have lifeforms here on this planet that thrive in even more extreme environments. There is not much O2 at the bottom of our oceans.

The science we're doing on Mars is not to prove that there is current life, but maybe there was once life. To know the past is to predict the future.
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Agreed on all points. There's also the same logic for Euros exploring the Americas.
 
Hello Geeko Sportivo,

Geeko Sportivo said:
The only thing Science is going to prove is that Mars is a dead planet that possibly never had life of any kind on it.

It's too cold for anything to live there. Temperatures vary between 81 degrees below 0 to 220 degrees below 0 F.

Nothing can live in that kind of cold climate with no atmosphere to speak of.
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Mars once had liquid water. You can see where it flowed.

The crater they landed in has signs of an inflow, and an outflow. That means it filled up at one time.
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
Yet we have lifeforms here on this planet that thrive in even more extreme environments. There is not much O2 at the bottom of our oceans.

The science we're doing on Mars is not to prove that there is current life, but maybe there was once life. To know the past is to predict the future.
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Hey, it's not my money they are spending. But, if we don't do some serious spending on saving our own planet, EARTH WILL BE THE NEXT DEAD PLANET!
 
Hello Geeko Sportivo,

Geeko Sportivo said:
Hey, it's not my money they are spending. But, if we don't do some serious spending on saving our own planet, EARTH WILL BE THE NEXT DEAD PLANET!
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Yeah but where's the profit in that? Capitalism has no goal of saving the planet. Capitalism would gladly destroy itself for profit.
 
Geeko Sportivo said:
Hey, it's not my money they are spending. But, if we don't do some serious spending on saving our own planet, EARTH WILL BE THE NEXT DEAD PLANET!
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You are very right. And this is why I support the science of exploration of other worlds, our own world, and how we can use this knowledge to save ourselves.
 
Geeko Sportivo said:
The only thing Science is going to prove is that Mars is a dead planet that possibly never had life of any kind on it.

It's too cold for anything to live there. Temperatures vary between 81 degrees below 0 to 220 degrees below 0 F.

Nothing can live in that kind of cold climate with no atmosphere to speak of.
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At this point" we are looking for evidence of extinct life.

Three billion years ago Mars had a thicker atmosphere, a Carbon Dioxide greenhouse warming effect, and liquid water. Conditions which are conducive to microbial life.

Also, Owl is correct that extremeophile microbes might exist in aqueous brines which are surmised to exist deep in the Martian subsurface - but those would obviously be beyond our testing capability at this time

Even if we find Mars does not have life, that still opens up interesting scientific and metaphysical questions: why did life not find a toehold on ancient Mars when conditions seemed favorable?
 
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PoliTalker said:
Hello Cypress,



But we might not know for a decade...

It is so advanced, yet it feels like such baby steps.

We can go and collect samples; we just can't analyze them or bring them back to do it on Earth.

That will require another mission.

So amazing - yet so limited.

Argh!
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We still have Titan and the Galilean moons to explore for life!
 
Cypress said:
At this point" we are looking for evidence of extinct life.

Three billion years ago Mars had a thicker atmosphere, a Carbon Dioxide greenhouse warning effect, and liquid water. Conditions which are conducive to microbial life.

Also, Owl is correct that extremeophile microbes might exist in aqueous brines which are surmised to exist deep in the Martian subsurface - but those would obviously be beyond our testing capability at this time

Even if we find Mars does not have life, that still opens up interesting scientific and metaphysical questions: why did life not find a toehold on ancient Mars when conditions seemed favorable?
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Yes, it's is possible that the planet died with everything living on it. Or it may turn out that there is a huge sea under the surface teaming of life- who knows?

If you don't go- you won't know- that is for sure.

But, we know our own planet could also die with just about everything on it- as that pretty much already happened once!

Let's do whatever it takes to save EARTH! I think that is of higher priority. This deep freeze of America is because of pressures caused by the warming of the planet, is forcing the jet stream to swoop and sway and move arctic air farther south than ever before.

I sure hope this is not going to be an annual event.
 
Geeko Sportivo said:
Yes, it's is possible that the planet died with everything living on it. Or it may turn out that there is a huge sea under the surface teaming of life- who knows?

If you don't go- you won't know- that is for sure.

But, we know our own planet could also die with just about everything on it- as that pretty much already happened once!

Let's do whatever it takes to save EARTH! I think that is of higher priority. This deep freeze of America is because of pressures caused by the warming of the planet, is forcing the jet stream to swoop and sway and move arctic air farther south than ever before.

I sure hope this is not going to be an annual event.
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I get your concern.

First, NASA's budget is a miniscule part of the Federal budget.

More importantly, I believe by learning about other planets, we gain insights about our own planet - earth and its processes.

Lastly, I admit I have always been a science geek for purely philosophical and metaphysical reasons. I am interested in knowlege about the universe, about the nature of reality, for its own sake.
 
Well Mars does not induce a magnetic field. So there's that. Ever see those white spots on rover photos? That's cosmic rays.
 
Cypress said:
I have worked with hundreds of chemical, petroleum, mechanical, and civil engineers.

And any legitimate engineering graduate of an accredited university does not call themselves a " scientist"
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I know the head of some American Engineering Society..

Also, I had an uncle that worked for NASA.
 
PoliTalker said:
Hello Geeko Sportivo,



Yeah but where's the profit in that? Capitalism has no goal of saving the planet. Capitalism would gladly destroy itself for profit.
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Some American capitalists perhaps, but Green Energy companies are capitalists too. But you have to educate the fossil fuel troglodytes that are still living in the stone age and get them out of harm's way first.
 
Cypress said:
I get your concern.

First, NASA's budget is a miniscule part of the Federal budget.

More importantly, I believe by learning about other planets, we gain insights about our own planet - earth and its processes.

Lastly, I admit I have always been a science geek for purely philosophical and metaphysical reasons. I am interested in knowlege about the universe, about the nature of reality, for its own sake.
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Thanks! Yes, it's very interesting stuff. And we learn more about space travel on every mission.

I am not a proponent to send a man to MARS though- just for bragging rights to say we did it.

At some point, we need to use this information we supposedly are learning from the other dead planets and USE IT TO SAVE OURSELVES!

That is all I am saying- use what we learn!
 
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