From India, Proof That a Trip to Mars Doesn’t Have to Break the Bank

Post by stuff4ben » Mon, Jun 30, 2014, 1:20 PM UTC

mrfusion wrote: post #40

someperson wrote: post #9

What the NYT article didn't mention was the lack of sterilization of the ISRO spacecraft. A huge portion of the budget for a probe like MAVEN [1] or JUNO [2] is spent reducing the chance of Earth microbes colonizing Mars or a moon of Jupiter. It would be a huge shame for us to have doubt whether the first extra terrestial microbes we find in the solar system were really alien or simply Space Age Earth based life [1]…

IMHO I view it differently. It would be a huge tragedy if we are the only life that has ever evolved in the universe and it all quietly ends on the same planet it started it. If there's a chance we can get even single celled life established on a another planet we should go for it. The loss of a bit of science is small potatoes compared to the fate of life in the universe.

Post by danielweber » Mon, Jun 30, 2014, 1:35 PM UTC

stuff4ben wrote: post #42

mrfusion wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO I view it differently. It would be a huge tragedy if we are the only life that has ever evolved in the universe and it all quietly ends on the same planet it started it. If there's a chance we can get even single celled life established on a another planet we should go for it. The loss of a bit of science is small potatoes compared to the fate of life in the universe.

In my not so humble opinion I think that's a really naive and ignorant way of looking at it. What if there is life on Mars that's unique to that planet? Introducing our microbes and germs to that planet could potentially wipe out the native fauna.

Post by Symmetry » Mon, Jun 30, 2014, 1:38 PM UTC

spingsprong wrote: post #41

danielweber wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't downvote, but I felt a mood-affiliation reason to downvote in that trying our darnedest to never contaminate Mars will stop us from colonizing Mars. Separately: Over the course of billions of years, rocks have moved from Earth to Mars and back. If colonization were a matter of just moving from one to the other, it would have happened already. In fact, answering that question seems very scientifically useful,…

Those rocks suffered a gigantic impact, a long period in the vacuum of space being bombarded by radiation, then a fiery re-entry. I don't know for sure, but wouldn't that be a pretty effective way of sterilising rock?

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jun 30, 2014, 1:40 PM UTC

tim333 wrote: post #34

someperson wrote: post #9

What the NYT article didn't mention was the lack of sterilization of the ISRO spacecraft. A huge portion of the budget for a probe like MAVEN [1] or JUNO [2] is spent reducing the chance of Earth microbes colonizing Mars or a moon of Jupiter. It would be a huge shame for us to have doubt whether the first extra terrestial microbes we find in the solar system were really alien or simply Space Age Earth based life [1]…

>A huge portion of the budget for a probe like MAVEN [1] or JUNO [2] is spent reducing the chance of Earth microbes colonizing Mars or a moon of Jupiter I don't know where you got that from? There's documentation that NASA sterilised things but nothing I've seen that says it cost a significant proportion of the budget.

Post by wavefunction » Mon, Jun 30, 2014, 1:55 PM UTC

someperson wrote: post #9

What the NYT article didn't mention was the lack of sterilization of the ISRO spacecraft. A huge portion of the budget for a probe like MAVEN [1] or JUNO [2] is spent reducing the chance of Earth microbes colonizing Mars or a moon of Jupiter. It would be a huge shame for us to have doubt whether the first extra terrestial microbes we find in the solar system were really alien or simply Space Age Earth based life [1]…