4 ms·
If we found microscopic life forms in the water though, would we create a settlement or not? It would be so easy to contaminate stuff with a settlement there. I
by teawrecks 5y ago
If we found microscopic life forms in the water though, would we create a settlement or not? It would be so easy to contaminate stuff with a settlement there. I could see people pushing for it becoming a reservation, only to be studied from very far away using hyper-sterilized robots. At least for a while until we are sure we've exhaustively cataloged everything.
Finding life would be huge, we're not going to just go settle on top of it willy-nilly.
- dougmwne 5y agoTo an extent, it depends on what we find. What kind of biology does it have? How many species are we talking about? Can we throw it in a bio-bank somewhere and move on? Will it outcompete any Earth life we try to seed? Could it be dangerous if it colonized the Earth?
- pvaldes 5y agoEarth should be as unsuitable for them as mars is for us, except in the case of non alive organisms like viruses or prions. But to have viruses you need higher forms of life supporting them, those based in cells If we found some alive in Mars and we could found it quickly if we found a cannon with water, we should call them in a distinct way. I will propose marteviruses: Marte-herpesvirus, Marte-adenovirus, Marte-coronavirus, etc. Another way could be putting before a M- prefix but would be less convenient to read
- dylan604 5y agoHasn't stopped us on the local planet.
- xwolfi 5y agoWhich is what scares me. Yes it s cool to protect the local microbes but damn arent we also an important local life form of the solar system that would leap one level in evolution by just living on two planets ? Should we lose that for the sake of microbs, as long as we can preserve them for study?
- pvaldes 5y agoContamination goes two ways.