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That's still the same argument. It's possible Martian life has already been decimated by microbes from earth, but does that possibility justify carelessly intro
by brianshaler 10y ago
That's still the same argument. It's possible Martian life has already been decimated by microbes from earth, but does that possibility justify carelessly introducing new extremophiles? There is a short window, less than a century and perhaps only a couple decades, before we start sending humans in which we can study what may have lived on Mars, originating from there or not, prior to colonization.
Conley is not trying to prevent Mars exploration or colonization. When we contaminate Mars, we should only do so as a deliberate choice, aware of the consequences, as there is no going back.
- danieltillett 10y agoAll the life on Mars is now going to be deep underground. It really isn’t possible to contaminate this even if we were to deliberately crop dust the whole planet in bacterial spores from Earth. It is not something we need to worry about. I would be much more cautious about some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn that may have internal oceans. These could be contaminated if we are not cautious, but like Mars they have probably been contaminated by Earth microbes billions of years ago.