Epic fail for the mars rover

And before little rover had his bedtime story at night he could go over and water his little seed hoping little seed wasn't to far away of course as we wouldnt want little rover to get lost
sorry i couldnt help myself!!!!

reply to post by pikestaff

No, nitrogen and bugs aren't there except.... there are already contaminant microbes in the form of hitchhikers on space craft.

Heres a read on it.

blogs.scientificamerican.com...

And about terraforming Mars? I read once that ice plant would be a good start. It spreads on its own, lives in cold climes and requires little CO2 for rapid growth. Over millennia (thats right), it would darken the surface, increasing the absorption of sunlight and raising overall temperature. Better get started...

unrelated links

reply to post by Blackmarketeer

what exactly would you expect them to grow there?

Maybe Asparagus....

Bassano, 27 January 2009 (Italy) In the International Year of Astronomy, a Group of Owners of Restaurants in Bassano (Italy) they have received in the city of the Brenta river the NASA technicians of the American Aerospace Agency (JPL) responsible of the mission of the space probe Phoenix that in the last year, reached on the Red Planet after a travel of ten months, has confirmed that the Mars soil is adapt to the cultivation of the ASPARAGUS!

“Phoenix Mars Lander”, that in 2008 has confirmed the water presence on the ground of Mars and the similarities between the Martian soil and some terrestrial soils, those in particular apt ones to the cultivation of asparagus.
The NASA delegation in Bassano was guided by Barry Goldstein, Chief of the Phoenix project, and Michael Hecht.

The Phoenix Mission
Phoenix Mars Lander is a developed automatic probe from NASA for the exploration of the Mars planet, with the objective to study the Martian atmosphere/environment in order to verify of the possibility to support life forms microrganism and in order to assess the water presence in the atmosphere. The Phoenix probe is a program developed jointly from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and the University of Arizona, under the direction of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA). The probe, after a travel in the space of 10 months, is landed on Mars 25 May 2008 in the northern icecap of the planet, rich ice region, where a soil champion has captured through an arm robot. The first chemical analyzes lead on the Martian soil have revealed the presence of the mineral nourishing of which the plants they have need in order to live: on Mars the conditions for the life exist!

I also share your opinion, it would be intersting . I understand the point of not contaminating the planet however the point of space exploration is to expand. and mars will probaly be our next home sweet home Imho.

I like Arkens response about asparagus

Also here is a list of plants that live in antartica/. library.thinkquest.org...
I favor lichen since it has the unique ability to form its own oasis. Check out the link there is some great info.

And for those that say its to cold I reply with a qoute...

" Lichens aren’t only frugal and robust, they jug out because of their very low sensibility against frost. Some lichens, in an experiment, survived a bath in liquid nitrogen at minus 195 degrees. "

air ferns

I love it when people talk about NASA as if they are amateurs and could do better with the help of mere internet dwellers such as ourselves. I for one think NASA have it pretty well covered when it comes to science. As for potential cover-ups, that's a different story and not one I'm going to speculate on at the moment but epic fail? Not this time bro.

Another consideration would be that most life here on earth is highly dependent on other earth life for its survival so that you cant just drop a seed in a completely sterile environment and expect it to grow regardless of other conditions. Out soil here is very much alive and we need it to be

reply to post by iforget

The peculiarity of lichens is that they are not one homogeneous organism but a symbiosis of two different partners, a fungus and an alga. The fungus part supplies the plant with water and nutritious salt, meanwhile the alga part organic substance, like carbohydrate produce. With this ideal "job-sharing", lichens can survive the hardest conditions. Far from the border of highly developed plants, lichens are the pioneers of the vegetation.

Also with this

Lichens aren’t only frugal and robust, they jug out because of their very low sensibility against frost. Some lichens, in an experiment, survived a bath in liquid nitrogen at minus 195 degrees.

I think that would solve the problem you raised about relying on other life as well as what others brought up about the cold. They have my vote.

Good points about extremophile lichens.

Instead of just dumping life on Mars and hoping it survives, scientists sould be able to create a Mars-like environment in a lab and experiment with plants there. Has anything like this been ever done? I'd be surprised if it hasn't. A large dome that contains roughly the same environment as on Mars would be useful not just for science experiments but also for testing future rovers and even preparing for manned missions.

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by wildespace


Thats a valid point and great suggestion. Not to mention responsible science.
I like it, maybe i'll get some government funding and start this, you'll get credit of coarse .

It seems almost to obvious.

To me the bigger debate is should we seed earth life or attempt to prevent its spread. The apparent barrreness of mars and Venus was very much a surprise to most scientists how much longer/ farther can we go finding so little evidence of life without accepting a certain responsibility to spread life as we know it?

Considering that there's a determination to not contaminate planets or other bodies with any earthly organisms... this thread makes no sense.

How could we ever possibly determine if life existed on Mars if we go planting it (not to mention as other posters have said, Mars isn't habitable for any life that evolved to be able to live on Earth)? Jeeze.

Mars has a dead core pretty much so no magnetosphere or a very faint one at best.

If Mars had a bigger moon then it would be alot like Earth i'm guessing.

I'm read somewhere that if the Earth didn't have the Moon it would be just as cold and dead as Mars.
The Moon keeps the Earth's insides hot and churning and we get the protective magnetosphere in the process, plus a chunky atomosphere.

If you want to jump start Mars your going to need to jump start its core first and then find away to keep it going.

Well, this thread still has some uses, as we can now discuss Mars' current habitability. Lookie what's been posted today! www.space.com...

While Mars was likely a more hospitable place in its wetter, warmer past, the Red Planet may still be capable of supporting microbial life today, some scientists say.

Ongoing research in Mars-like places such as Antarctica and Chile's Atacama Desert shows that microbes can eke out a living in extremely cold and dry environments, several researchers stressed at "The Present-Day Habitability of Mars" conference held here at the University of California Los Angeles this month.

And not all parts of the Red Planet's surface may be arid currently — at least not all the time. Evidence is building that liquid water might flow seasonally at some Martian sites, potentially providing a haven for life as we know it.

"We certainly can't rule out the possibility that it's habitable today," said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, principal investigator for the HiRise camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

Originally posted by intrptr

Maybe if they put a little glass dome over the spot. Like a terrarium of sorts? That way the water might not evaporate and the sun would warm the interior enough to melt the water ice during the day?

Then what would happen?

Then they'd need someone up there to tend it whilst Curiosity does it's other tasks.....then we'd need to colonize Mars.....then we'd screw up that planet as well.

I say don't drop anything on the planet. Leave it alone, do your experiments and come home.

CX.

You would think they would have taken along a Mars bar to leave on Mars too. Geeze, those scientists just aren't creative enough

Originally posted by hisshadow
So we drilled this perfect hole on mars, and have pictures of it...
and at no time does the rover drop a seed into the hole, a drop of water and cover it back up i dont know
EPIC FAIL

I think a more useful (and easier) planet to contaminate would be Venus. Chances are pretty good that nothing lives there, and nothing we drop onto the surface is going to live long enough to do the job either. However, it might be useful to drop some genetically modified bacteria into the upper atmosphere that could bust up the greenhouse effect and eat up the sulfur and carbon dioxide to create a rough mix of nitrogen, oxygen and water that we have here on Earth. Unfortunately, Venus has a very slow rotational period, or it would be relatively easy to terraform it. But we could at least make it a little more comfortable for us if we ever feel like visiting.

Although, thinking about it even more. Besides Mars, it would be foolish for us to land anything besides robots on Venus (or float some blimps in the sky there), since it would take so much energy to get off it again. Mars, okay. Asteroids, even better. But Venus is at the bottom of a pretty deep gravity hole.

reply to post by CX

Well, okay.

I say don't drop anything on the planet. Leave it alone, do your experiments and come home.

Every time we go we litter the planet with rocket fuel, radioactivity and microbes. Whats to contaminate? Might as well scatter some life on purpose and see what happens. It's only costing us a gazillion dollars for some vacation pics.

Humans are the worst kind of litterbugs, I agree. Everywhere we go we destroy. I know that some just come and go. Its those that follow that leave a mess.

Originally posted by winofiend
I'm with you doc. We need more plants on mars. By the time we get there we'd have a really big garden.

And we could play on the swings all day smelling roses.

That's my dream, and why isn't nasa doing it !!!!!!!

Because the rover's job is to explore the planet, not "seed" (read: pollute) it with Earth life forms. not that they had a snowball's chance of growing anyway.