Phobos-Grunt Probe to Put Microbial Life in Mars Orbit

Phobos Grunt, the three-year mission is to land a spacecraft on the distant moon in 2011,
The idea is to transport microorganisms from the Bacteria, Eukaryota and Archaea domains in a puck-shaped BioModule designed to look like a meteorite to one of Mars' moons.
Phobos-Grunt is intended also to cast an orbital eye on Mars too, but then plop down on Phobos , the question has to be asked , is it sensible to send Earth microorganisms into Mars orbit , accidents happen .

Still, some space scientists are scratching their heads why anyone would risk putting Earthly microorganisms anywhere near Mars in the first place, especially given the relatively modest scientific payoff

What a great way to cover up evidence of life on Mars .

I guess what set off my buzzer was lobbing organisms toward Mars, on purpose, given that lots of effort - and money - is involved in preventing hitchhiking microbes from Earth making it to the red planet in the first place.

As broached in The Planetary Society's Frequently Asked Questions about the mission: Is it likely that this experiment could contaminate Mars with life, thus confusing future searches for life on Mars?

www.msnbc.msn.com...

Now thats just insane and your theory is very plausible!!

Originally posted by gortex
...What a great way to cover up evidence of life on Mars...

I disagree.

Any life they ever find on Mars will be tested. If the life is found to be totally different than life on Earth (and different than those microbes intentionally put on that space probe), then it probably formed independently on Mars. If it is found to be the same or very similar to those organisms intentionally put in that space probe, then we know the life did not form independently on Mars, and it came from the contamination.

It would not be difficult to tell if the life is related to those organisms.

This brings up another point -- if life is someday found on Mars and it is found to be similar to, but not exactly like life on Earth, then that could mean:

(1) Life on Earth could have originated on Mars Billions of years ago and brought to Earth by a chunk of meteor blown off of Mars (Mars Seeds Earth with life).

(2) Life on Mars could have originated on Earth sometime in the past and carried to Mars by a chunk of meteor blown off of the Earth (Earth seeds Mars with life).

(3) Life on Earth and life on Mars were started elsewhere, but chunks of meteors/comets carrying that life seeded both planets billions of years ago (i.e., life on both planets have a separate common origin).

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Two years to wait and then we will see , if Phobos Grunt fails and " accidentally" crashes on Mars then I will rest my point .
If this is about testing if Extremophiles can survive in space then why not send them to the Moon.

Originally posted by gortex
reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

 

Two years to wait and then we will see , if Phobos Grunt fails and " accidentally" crashes on Mars then I will rest my point .
If this is about testing if Extremophiles can survive in space then why not send them to the Moon.

But my point is, even if it DOES crash, any life found later could be tested to see if it is one of these microbes on the Russian probe. If it is, then that's how it got there. If it isn't, then the life got there by some other means (or it began there).

I'm not saying it doesn't matter if it crashes or not -- I don't want Mars contaminated with Earth life, either. I, too, think this is a very bad idea.

However, I don't think they could use this as a "cover story" if life is eventually found there.

Covering up evidence of life? Like hell!

This is the first stage of terraforming Mars. Data gathered by Mars surface missions is sufficient to determine which Earthian extremophiles will be able to thrive on Mars. These primitive but hardy lifeforms have demonstrated their facility in adaptability, life on Mars will be a piece of cake. But, being Earthlife, their very presence will be the beginnings of altering the atmosphere (and climate) of the red planet. Rapid mutation will enable these micro-organisms to utilize the high levels of solar radiation and organic chemicals in the soil to first produce various "heavy" gases which can be held by the meager surface gravity. The higher atmospheric pressures will then allow water to exist in a liquid state on the surface. At this stage algae will be introduced to the small lakes which will form and, through photosynthesis, will begin converting the huge amounts of available CO2 into oxygen.

It begins at a very slow rate. But the rate of change increases exponentially. Within 75 years it will be possible for humans to walk on the surface of Mars with no more than a supplemental oxygen mask.

Native Mars life?
We'll find out who's fittest.

Obviously a preemptive biological attack against the impending martian armies.

Yes we do know how to screw up an ecosystem with introduced species, and it seemed to work in the movies.

reply to post by Phage


That is exactly my thoughts when I read this article , Mars could be the perfect testing ground for various algae research etc if the seeding takes affect.
Obviously this is all hypothetical but if they did choose to try and terraform Mars its a huge laboratory to play with , just hope the mutations go the way its "planned"