Russian sending "Life" to Martian moon!

LIFE on Earth was all neatly packed up inside a pucklike container and ready to blast off on an unmanned Russian mission to a Martian moon this month.

After more than 10 months traveling through deep space, the Planetary Society’s Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment would land on the surface of the Martian moon Phobos with its cargo of voyagers from all three kingdoms of life, including tiny, extremely hardy animals called tardigrades.

Then, after a couple of weeks on the surface, the first Earthly life to have lived on another solar body would return to Earth. A tiny, robotic, interplanetary lander was going to spring off the base craft, fire off its rocket, and hurtle through space before crash landing in Kazakhstan.

From wired.com Can Life Survive Deep Space? Let’s Send It There!

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6f6f767bcc49.jpg[/atsimg]

Can life survive in deep space... I tend to think so. Either way this is a very interesting exppirament, and I'm glad to see we are entertaining the idea of life off of our planet. Maybe research of topics that seem "far out" won't be so taboo to study in the future.

If they can successfully get this little thingy to return to earth after hanging out on Phobos for a while I will be impressed.

-E-

[edit on 9-10-2009 by MysterE]

wow.

what if this capsule accidentally goes back in time and forms the life that migrated to earth from mars to begin with ???


sorry too much redbull energy drink.

kinda weird tho. has anyone sent life into space before like this?

i know astronauts count as life, but it wasnt trying to accomplish the same mission.

[edit on 10/9/2009 by mahtoosacks]

Hmmmmmmm

We see the disasters that occur when man moves species of plants and animals to different area's.

Can you imagine the same thing but on a planet-wide scale.

Both contaminating the moon as well, if they pick them back up as said, contaminating the earth in unimaginable ways.

It is not certain, but it is a real risk.

It may just be because I am still yawning after NASA's little LCROSS misson from earlier this morning but this does sound like a really interesting experiment. I remember reading about how spores could survive in the vaccuum of space and it made me wonder about "seed planting" on other planets.

This could be a fun start.

But, I too am a little concerned about how they would get the object to come back home. Not an easy task at all. Good Luck Russia!

Lets just hope we don't rely on NASA for any TV pictures !!

reply to post by MysterE

Can life survive in deep space... I tend to think so. Either way this is a very interesting exppirament, and I'm glad to see we are entertaining the idea of life off of our planet. Maybe research of topics that seem "far out" won't be so taboo to study in the future.

We are all in deep space, my friend...

reply to post by DangerDeath


Well, we're in "Deep Space" behind several hundred kilometers worth of atmospheric and magnetic shielding. These little things won't be.

What if the thingie never gets back off the face of Phobos???

That would probably mean the Russians have seeded life on that moon! - especially if the little critters manage to get out!!!

Pretty cool when you think about it - at one point we could of been the little critters that got out of some container that was sent here to see if life would work here!

Maybe this is an evolutionary certainty!... Intelligent life gets to more of less this point and starts leaving genetic finger prints on all available planets and moons!

Maybe its because of weird happenings like this.

Sorry I would make this a topic but I'm a noob.

It is in Moscow. There is also a Russia TV broadcast in English.

Maybe its because of weird happenings like this.

Sorry I would make this a topic but I'm a noob.

It is in Moscow. There is also a Russia TV broadcast in English.

reply to post by wylee


That has absolutely nothing to do with the topic. Being new is no excuse, you can easily look up how to make a new thread. You are simply spamming for attention.

True. So your topic about shielding. Maybe they want the spores to mutate. I sure that is one of the parameters.

They're are also other reasons why the are going to the Martian Moon. B. Aldrin says it would much easier to land on that moon than mars itself.