Life on Mars is from Earth?

SORRY. Posted in wrong category.

I placed this here instead of atsnn because I feel it is worthy of discussion. I've copied excerpts because it's the discussion I value versus the synopsis of the article. Had I posted this on atsnn I would have paraphrased.

www.newscientist.com...

There is life on Mars, a researcher has announced at a conference - unfortunately it is just spaceship-borne contamination.

[Of] all the space probes sent to Mars, only the two Viking craft in 1976 were adequately heat sterilised. The procedures used for all missions since then, including NASA's twin rovers and Europe's Beagle 2, would have left some microbes aboard.

After testing whether terrestrial organisms can survive simulated Martian conditions and the procedures used to sterilise spacecraft, he reckons there is a good chance some made it to Mars and might still be living there.

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So what does this say about how other worlds may view our planet? If there is Martian life and they are infected with our microbes, will we have another continent-wide infection similar to white man versus the native americans? Other worlds will view us as attacking them and rightly so.

In today's spirit of exploration I find this rather irresponsible. Especially considering that two craft from nearly 30 years ago were sterilized but nothing else was.

That's disappointing NASA.



[Edited on 24-3-2004 by titian]

Yes, we are greedy and irresponsible in many ways. I hadn't heard about that contaminated probe idea until now. It doesn't suprise me at all though.

Some folks want a plant or animal so bad they smuggle them & introduce them into places where they sometimes wipe out entire native species.

Even commericial ships try to save money by dumping ballast water into protected waters and contaminate those areas with destructive species.

They even considered sending radioactive waste into space and I'm sure we would have if it had not been cheaper to bury it in the Nevada desert.

The contaminated probe idea is quite a possible scenario.

Needless to say, I wouldn't be surprised if

If there's already life on Mars, it will be much better adapted than life from earth and the earth life will probably be competed away. If there's no life on Mars, we've already start the terraforming process without even trying.

i think this is exactly right what ur sayin. Nobody thought that there may have been life on mars b4 there was life on earth. An what wiped them out the same thing that got rid of the dinosaurs 4 us. A Comet that explains where these so called river beds went 2.

Heres another link about this. I think it would be very possible for life from earth to hitch a ride aboard the spacecrafts.
news.yahoo.com.../nm/20040324/sc_nm/scie nce_life_mars_dc_1

Wasn't there a case when an ant got stuck in a probe and scared the hell out of the scientists when it got infront of one of the probe's cameras ( that was allready in space)

PS: I don't know if the ant survived but maybe it was in a pressurized section of the vehicle