More results for the possibility of Life on Mars - Page 12

Astro Bugs are go! Phobos Grunt Mission to take some of the toughest Earth creatures to the Martian Moon Phobos.

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Fingers crossed for Phobos-Grunt! I find the idea of setting up a recon base on Phobos AND sample return brilliant - cheap stable orbit for sustained Mars observation / satellite relay campaigns (could be used as a manned outpost or shuttle base as well - in the next century or so).

Lets hope the spacefaring microbes wont end up crashing on Mars those forward contaminate it. Really curious if the experiment can support the idea of panspermia.

Oh dear, the Martian Curse is alive and well, one of the engines has not fired and Phobos-Grunt has strayed off course. There has been no real orientation with the Stars so it is basically a bit lost.

They have 3 days to sort it out before the batteries die. It has been 15 years since the Russians have last had a successful interplanetary mission. Let us hope they can sort this out.

Does it seem that the Russian idea of contamination to Mars,,differ from ours?

Where,,IF there is microbial life on Mars,,these
earth bugs might alter/delete the Mars life?

I must say,,I am a bit confused as to why
this life transfer was allowed.

Any ideas anyone?

Dig deep for life on Mars.

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Hi John,

One of this biggest issues is contaminated probes, to date we have not been able to prove space hardware is completely clean. Viking was a case in question. To successfully find life elsewhere you have to prove your equipment was not contaminated by Earth microbes. To date I don't think we have produced any probe or rover that is 100% sterile.

Phobos-Grunt looks doomed but had it gone to Phobos the Bugs would have remained in their container and not let loose on Phobos. There are a whole set of rules regarding contaminating or the destruction of life for interplanetary missions that must be followed.

Interestingly the Juno mission to Jupiter at the end of it's life will crash into the planet because "It must avoid that Moon" i.e. Europa.

Planetary protection on the one hand and sterilization requirements for life-detection missions (see Kevin above) maybe one of the reasons of not having another life-detection mission to Mars yet (35+ years after Viking). Almost complete sterilization of space probes and especially landers which is required for life-detection experiments is an extremely expensive business (see Viking). For no life-detection missions like MERs and MSL now these stringent rules are not binding by NASA standards those such missions are cheaper or would be far more expensive (MSL). I guess the same applied for Phobos-Grunt.

Its really a pity Phobos-Grunt failed though.

Thank You,,,both gentlemen,,,One,never becomes too old to learn.Very informative,,both of you.

It is indeed a sad thing (Phobos Grunt),,,many
Russian scientist,,very disappointed indeed,,,Let us offer Condolences from the MRB.We make up a group that DO care also(why else are we here?).
jhd

More info on the Phobos Grunt,,,it don't look good.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1717/downloads/pdf/p1717O.pdf Smile

Look like PG has until early Dec to make contact with Earth and possibly still get to Mars otherwise it will be a fiery return in Jan.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1111/14phobosgrunt/

How many of us remember when last we had a Weather Station on Mars?.Pheonix a brave little
warrior,dispatched closer to the Pole,anyway
it will be nice to get 'live updates' again.

Godspeed Curiosity
jhd.

Even though the eventual outcome for Phobos-Grunt could be failure there is a slim chance the LIFE Experiment may make it back onto land. If so there will still be some useful science to be had on the transpermia theory.

http://www.universetoday.com/90985/update-on-phobos-grunt-might-the-life-experiment-be-recovered/

Phobos Grunt if it were to receive a communication to send it on its way is now a one way mission. No sample return.

http://www.universetoday.com/91207/can-phobos-grunt-still-be-saved-scientists-hold-out-hope-as-deadlines-loom/

Mars comes second to Titan in a recent paper on where extraterrestrial life forms might be found:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15863549

Re: 233: It has been pointed out that the mission can simply wait another two years on Phobos for the launch window to reopen to send the sample back to Earth.

I can't believe all the defeatist rhetoric coming from some of the media sources. We should put our trust in the brilliant engineers who are no doubt working day and night to devise creative improvised solutions to recover the mission.

Barsoomer, I think so too the Russians may have problems with their computer tech at times (like this) but they always build sturdy and reliable hardware at least. I think there is a good chance of firing the fregat engines to propel the probe to Mars somehow and fix the remaining software problems during the cruise.

Hi, I would really like to hear from anyone with a more indepth knowledge of the search for life on Mars than myself. I am a professional marine biologist with a keen interest in microbiology. I have been extremely puzzled for some time now about the supposed search for life beyond our own planet. Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe is a highly regarded astrobiologist with over 75 publications in Nature alone highlighting his credentials. I have read several of his papers in which he 1- has identified microorganisms in the stratosphere which have to originate from space...the boundary between the troposphere/stratosphere inhibits terrestrial sourced microorganisms achieving these heights and 2- the spectral signature of "space dust" is exactly the same as known bacterial examples on Earth. Therefore why are we all being led to believe in the popular press that life has not been found anywhere beyond our own planet? any comments would be greatly received

Ben (I take it your a not the Geologist Ben of this blog?), actually this is a very complex and difficult question which cant be readily answered I fear. The so called scientific community is not really transparent on this topic so is NASA and the media behind.
The acceptance of the presence of alien life (no matter what form) still means a major paradigm change which just didn't happened yet.

One funny recent experience from me regarding this is: by just mentioning the Viking LR results and its evidence (I said not even proof) for microbial life on Mars as comment to a MSL article resulted in accusing me of talking about conspiracy theories

Who knows how deep the rabbit hole really is on the alien life issue...

I suggest you reading a bit what the late Dr. Levin (PI of the Viking LR life detection experiment) has to say about this issue when you already read Chandra Wickramasinghe papers and compare the situation.

http://gillevin.com/mars.htm

This is not too surprising for "people in the know" but may be a further contribution for a general paradigm shift:
Life Possible On 'Large Regions' Of Mars
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Thanks MPJ,,,I was just going to post that link.
j.
interesting to say the least