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Microbial life on Mars MUST be considered


seeder

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Microbial life on Mars: The possibility must be considered


Summary:      The existence of microbial life on Mars remains highly controversial, but recent evidence of water, complex organic molecules, and methane in the Martian environment, combined with findings from the 1976 Viking mission, have led to the conclusion that existing life on Mars is a possibility that must be considered.

The existence of microbial life on Mars remains highly controversial, but recent evidence of water, complex organic molecules, and methane in the Martian environment, combined with findings from the 1976 Viking mission, have led to the conclusion that existing life on Mars is a possibility that must be considered, as presented in an article in Astrobiology.

In "The Case for Extant Life on Mars and Its Possible Detection by the Viking Labeled Release Experiment," coauthors Gilbert V. Levin, Arizona State University, Tempe, and Patricia Ann Straat, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (retired), clearly outline the evidence to support the "biological hypothesis," which argues that the results of the 1976 Viking Labeled Release experiment were positive for extant microbial life on the surface of Mars.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161018132408.htm


 

 

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I reiterate what I said recently about how it is an embarrassment that 40 years after Viking, there is still no answer. 

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Maybe...HOPEFULLY...the next mars rover will be able to tell us if there was microbial life....it would be alien after all

 

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16 hours ago, seeder said:

Maybe...HOPEFULLY...the next mars rover will be able to tell us if there was microbial life....it would be alien after all

 

The 2020 rover is designed, specifically, to determine if life exists or existed on Mars.  They used information gained from earlier missions, especially Curiosity, to design the instruments and experiments and will actively pursue an answer to that question. 

Edited by Merc14
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 10/25/2016 at 10:35 AM, Merc14 said:

The 2020 rover is designed, specifically, to determine if life exists or existed on Mars.  They used information gained from earlier missions, especially Curiosity, to design the instruments and experiments and will actively pursue an answer to that question. 

it won't work. If there is life on mars it'll be way below the surface, in caves , groundwater ... places sand debts only a man mission can explore. 

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7 hours ago, qxcontinuum said:

it won't work. If there is life on mars it'll be way below the surface, in caves , groundwater ... places sand debts only a man mission can explore. 

I tend to agree. There is evidence of flowing water on the surface, possibly any life that evolved would have adapted to these conditions. As Mars transitioned from wet to dry, higher radiation and more extreme enviorments you can speculate life would be forced deeper and deeper into the ground. Life survives thousands and thousands of feet below Earths surface.Of course we have to use life on Earth as the template but is there any reason not to? I guess the element of time would play a role. If this transition happened quite fast any life could have been wiped out in a heartbeat. 

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By the way I'm referring to existing life. Hopefully future expeditions may find evidence of of past life on surface..now that would be truly incredible!

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The methane has always made me wonder what's hiding beneath the crust.

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there will be plenty of scientific discoveries to be made on Mars, no doubt about that. I have a feeling that space agencies need to sell the idea of life to get support from masses which itself is a sorry state of affairs. I have feeling that scientists may have a personal opinion or have run numbers and figured out that the chances of finding life on Mars are near zero but to secure support they have to drum this up. how many of you here feel instead of carrying life detection equipment better payloads can be carried? 

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The 2020 rover will mainly look for evidence of past life but it does have the ability to detect active life if it is near the surface or becomes active when summer arrives.  

Edited by Merc14
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