Martian soil appears able to support life

[Seamus OBlimey]

Martian soil appears able to support life

May I suggest that anyone making such claims be sent to test their hypothesis?

[Seamus OBlimey]

Martian soil appears able to support life

May I suggest that anyone making such claims be sent to test their hypothesis?

[Seamus OBlimey]

Twice?

[Jeff]

May I suggest that anyone making such claims be sent to test their hypothesis?

You may.

May I suggest that anyone making such claims be sent to test their hypothesis?

You may.

[compared2what?]

May I suggest that anyone making such claims be sent to test their hypothesis?

You may.

May I suggest that anyone making such claims be sent to test their hypothesis?

You may.

And, more to the point, you can!

(My third-grade teacher used to utter the sentence "You can, but you may not" in response to a question from just about every kid in the room every single goddamn day. So it's syntactical point the prick of which kinda stayed with me.)

[MacCruiskeen]

They should plant some moss there. It might eventually evolve into a conscious being.



If the moss is wise, though, it will remain insentient.

[orz]

[MacCruiskeen]

moss writes:

we are happy to remain insentient

[wintler2]

Possible that Martian soil might support life (shame about the oxygen, uv rays, and water)? Makes ya proud. Guess you US taxpayers had better bankroll another fifty years of mindboggling Mil-Corp resource waste while reinforcing the violent State.

I wish every fan of space 'exploration' were removed pronto by aliens. This prolonged adolescence covering for militarism (Star Trek, Star Wars, etc etc etc) is too stupid to stomach any longer.

[justdrew]

this makes it look like we could terraform mars almost easily. just induce some global warming with some good designer aerosols shot up by unmanned rockets, the heating will probably release more gasses tied up in frozen soil which will increase atmospheric density. there might be a fair amount of oxygen tied up as CO2 that some designer lichen and black violas can breath, increasing the oxygen levels. maybe have to import some nitrogen, but I bet there's plenty there tied up in some solid compounds that can be broken down to increase atmospheric nitrogen levels. All sorts of things could be done. place could be down right homey in a couple hundred years if we go fast.

but then, there may well be life there already, and it would probably want us NOT transforming mars. so there may be the next big question. even if there is no native life found right away... how long do we look? anyway, a fiarly well done series of books is the Red Mars series.

as for steps 1 through 7 - I really hope so and they hurry up. I just need a small cargo ship and a pass to go traveling... I promise to send back detailed notes!

[ninakat]

This prolonged adolescence covering for militarism (Star Trek, Star Wars, etc etc etc) is too stupid to stomach any longer.

Yeah, I kinda think we earthlings need to get our own house in order before we trash the rest of the solar system, galaxy, universe....

But, hey, the truth is out there.... at least in cyberspace somewhere.

[ninakat]

orz, thanks for that twisted pic... I'm now almost caught up on belly laughs, at least for the beginning of the weekend.

[stickdog99]

The question them becomes, why haven't the viable Earthly microbes that have certainly arrived on Mars for billions of years already globally infested it?

Or have they already, only to have largely retreated underground by this point because of life's inability to generate a subsurface/surface equilibrium on Mars?

[Ben D]

this makes it look like we could terraform mars almost easily. just induce some global warming with some good designer aerosols shot up by unmanned rockets, the heating will probably release more gasses tied up in frozen soil which will increase atmospheric density.

Under the SEI (Space Exploration Initiative) of President Bush in 1989, Rockwell International was commissioned to provide a 100 year plus vision based on the systematic long range perspective of America's and the Western World's space program. It involved the integration of all NASA long range studies extant at the time. It includes the expansion of humanity into the solar system and envisaged a transition of humanity from a terrestrial species to a solar one beginning around the middle of this century.

WRT the terraforming of Mars, this was planned to take place around 2050 by attaching MDREs (Mass Driver Reaction Engines) to asteroids and bringing them into Mars orbit as moons. When all is ready, some will be 'crashed' into the planet to initiate terraforming.

As it currently stands, the plan has morphed somewhat from the original and is about 10 years behind schedule due to a hiatus during the Clinton administration.

[wintler2]

..Under the SEI (Space Exploration Initiative) of President Bush in 1989, Rockwell International was commissioned to provide a 100 year plus vision based on the systematic long range perspective of America's and the Western World's space program...

Mmm, a vision statement, that'll cut those light years down to size [/sarcasm]. If the commissions of Halliburton & Carlyle Group are anything to go by, US govt spends an awful lot on vision, bullshit and promises, and never mind the substance. But i guess thats all Bush I & II needed to feed their mushrooms/serfs, so everybody is a winner, right?