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I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

blogs.scientificamerican.com

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Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#31

Post by tootie »

dwoozle wrote: post #28
hirundo wrote: post #11

"Our aspirational goal is to send our first cargo mission to Mars in 2022. The objectives for the first mission will be to confirm water resources, identify hazards, and put in place initial power, mining, and life support infrastructure. A second mission, with both cargo and crew, is targeted for 2024" -- spacex.com/mars Maybe NASA should book space for a biologist on that flight. A botanist would do.

Do you really need a botanist on board? I would think you need space travel / survival / engineering hands on deck who then gather samples and bring them back. A botanist isn’t going to be able to do much on Mars that she can’t do on Earth.

A botanist was the protagonist of The Martian.

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#32

Post by wallace_f »

defterGoose wrote: post #25
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's assume for a moment that we did find something resembling simple organic life on Mars and confirmed that earth isn't the only life bearing planet. What functionally changes for our existential understanding of the universe? I'd argue little to nothing. We'd learn a bit more about organic life, but no fundamental philosophical or existential questions would be resolved. Life has been confirmed to be able to thri…

I'd argue that the jump from 0 to 1 of "knowledge of life on other planets" would be huge. Currently, we have an almost pseudo-religious understanding of what place life holds in the universe, but that's based on the fact that when we've looked up at the cosmos for all of history, it seemed impossibly devoid of anything familiar. The discovery of life on another planet (even if that life somehow originated on Earth),…

>we've looked up at the cosmos for all of history, it seemed impossibly devoid of anything

This is popularly misunderstood. We obviously don't see Type 3 civilizations, but if another of our own civilization was in our galaxy, we would have had an very small to extremely small chance of seeing it.

I'd wager life is everywhere, and just as is the case on earth, it pays, in terms of survival, to blend in with your surroundings.

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#33

Post by currydove »

dwoozle wrote: post #28
hirundo wrote: post #11

"Our aspirational goal is to send our first cargo mission to Mars in 2022. The objectives for the first mission will be to confirm water resources, identify hazards, and put in place initial power, mining, and life support infrastructure. A second mission, with both cargo and crew, is targeted for 2024" -- spacex.com/mars Maybe NASA should book space for a biologist on that flight. A botanist would do.

Do you really need a botanist on board? I would think you need space travel / survival / engineering hands on deck who then gather samples and bring them back. A botanist isn’t going to be able to do much on Mars that she can’t do on Earth.

The reference above is to the book "The Martian" by Andy Weir. Also a movie starring Matt Damon. Good read. Highly recommend!

Xkcd reference that got me to read it: https://xkcd.com/1536/

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#34

Post by cabalamat »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #15
psaux wrote: post #7

I often wonder why these are always auxiliary conversations. Ever since I was young, like most kids (I have 4), I also had this deep yearning for knowledge on life external to earth. Wonder why this never has gone mainstream.

Let's assume for a moment that we did find something resembling simple organic life on Mars and confirmed that earth isn't the only life bearing planet. What functionally changes for our existential understanding of the universe? I'd argue little to nothing. We'd learn a bit more about organic life, but no fundamental philosophical or existential questions would be resolved. Life has been confirmed to be able to thri…

> What functionally changes for our existential understanding of the universe? I'd argue little to nothing.

It depends on how different it is chemically form earth life. If it is similar enough that it shares a common origin, it's no big deal. If it isn't, then that's a massive deal because it means life originated twice in one solar system, therefore is probably widespread.

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#35

Post by joshmarlow »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #15
psaux wrote: post #7

I often wonder why these are always auxiliary conversations. Ever since I was young, like most kids (I have 4), I also had this deep yearning for knowledge on life external to earth. Wonder why this never has gone mainstream.

Let's assume for a moment that we did find something resembling simple organic life on Mars and confirmed that earth isn't the only life bearing planet. What functionally changes for our existential understanding of the universe? I'd argue little to nothing. We'd learn a bit more about organic life, but no fundamental philosophical or existential questions would be resolved. Life has been confirmed to be able to thri…

If the life evolved independently of life on earth (ie, no panspermia or anything like that), then it would have philosophical/existential implications because of the Great Filter Hypothesis - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter.

Edit for a TL;DR - The basic idea is that, if we don't see evidence of intelligent life in the universe, it must be because star traveling species must be rare. If we find life evolving twice in one solar system, then the early parts of life evolving must be relatively easy - which suggests the later parts of life becoming technologically advanced are the hard parts. In other words, life on Mars may mean that there may be more problems ahead of us than behind us.

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#36

Post by dwoozle »

tootie wrote: post #31
dwoozle wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really need a botanist on board? I would think you need space travel / survival / engineering hands on deck who then gather samples and bring them back. A botanist isn’t going to be able to do much on Mars that she can’t do on Earth.

A botanist was the protagonist of The Martian.

That’s fiction...

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#37

Post by jorvi »

tootie wrote: post #31
dwoozle wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really need a botanist on board? I would think you need space travel / survival / engineering hands on deck who then gather samples and bring them back. A botanist isn’t going to be able to do much on Mars that she can’t do on Earth.

A botanist was the protagonist of The Martian.

And an antagonist on the TV series 'Mars'!

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#38

Post by mch82 »

tootie wrote: post #31
dwoozle wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really need a botanist on board? I would think you need space travel / survival / engineering hands on deck who then gather samples and bring them back. A botanist isn’t going to be able to do much on Mars that she can’t do on Earth.

A botanist was the protagonist of The Martian.

Exactly! There’s only one option in the face of overwhelming odds :-)

https://youtu.be/BABM3EUo990

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#39

Post by SubiculumCode »

01100011 wrote: post #19
aazaa wrote: post #6

> On July 30, 1976, the LR returned its initial results from Mars. Amazingly, they were positive. As the experiment progressed, a total of four positive results, supported by five varied controls, streamed down from the twin Viking spacecraft landed some 4,000 miles apart. The data curves signaled the detection of microbial respiration on the Red Planet. The curves from Mars were similar to those produced by LR tests…

It seems like one could replicate this experiment on earth and verify non-biological origins for the observed results. I'm pretty sure we're familiar with the composition of martian soil by now. Create a sample with similar composition, blast it with UV rays in an atmosphere similar to Mars, and subject the soil sample to the same test.

Why isn't just a plain old microscope used to detect microbial life?

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#40

Post by gen220 »

sosborn wrote: post #30
justinator wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, you're probably right. If there was life found on Mars, there would be precedence to protect it - I could see this even stopping ANY manned missions (fear of contamination). If the planet is dead, we as a civilization get the privilege to do whatever we want with it. Also a dead planet means the idea of the Monotheistic God kind of remains. Ignorance is bliss.

> Also a dead planet means the idea of the Monotheistic God kind of remains. I don't follow why life on another planet would have any bearing on the idea of a Monotheistic God.

This is why I kind of admire the biblical myths; their selective details and smoky metaphors have proven incredibly resilient to new truths, and invite so much speculation.

The garden of eden could be in some far flung galaxy, from which we “life”, were expelled as microbes, thanks to the sins of relatives we wouldn’t recognize. The rib of Adam could symbolize the arbitrary evolution of sexual reproduction from asexual origins. The forbidden fruit could represent some inevitable nuclear holocaust spurred on by some intra-species conflict, which prompted life to be cast out and begin on another planet. Something unique about our shape of life means that we’re stuck in a cycle of destructive evolution that cannot be saved from itself, excepting for the divine intervention of some less imperfect shape of life.

Anyways, I’m rambling! I hope this sparks somebody’s theological-scifi bug and produces a mildly entertaining narrative in somebody else’s head. :)

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