3 ms·

Apparently apropos of human, rather than robot, exploration, this article says: Frankly, the chance of finding evidence of life on Mars will always make it a m

Apparently apropos of human, rather than robot, exploration, this article says: Frankly, the chance of finding evidence of life on Mars will always make it a more attractive destination than our close, but definitely dead, satellite. So it looks like everyone has conveniently forgotten all about Arthur C. Clarke's 1961 short story Before Eden. http://books.google.com/books?id=iL2-iRGDjScC&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=summary+on,+before+eden+by+arthur+c+clarke+&source=web&ots=ItlNCQIJk_&sig=t8dQ_GzRVLXILtspyX6iyLpJuh8&hl=en#v=onepage&q=&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=iL2-iRGDjScC&pg=PA60&#3... That's the one where the humans visit Venus, discover life, high-five each other, and leave. The next trip discovers that all the Venusian life is extinct, having been contaminated by the humans that had discovered it. Back in the 1960s people remembered this story. Probes to Mars and Venus were deliberately sterilized before they landed. So far as I know that practice continues today. The last thing you want to do to a planet that might contain life is to send living things from Earth to visit it. Their residue will screw up every experiment forever after. Even now, when all we send are sterilized robot probes, avoiding contamination by Earth-derived biomolecules is a major struggle.

chrischen 17y ago
Do you really need to sterilize something before sending it to Venus?
- jerf 17y ago
  In real life, no, but before it was discovered that under the clouds of Venus lies a surface where tin is a liquid, Venus was home to tropical jungles full of large, dangerous critters, and enormous swamp-based civilizations. Venus was also strangely prone to generating aliens with telepathy. Just as science cost us Edgar Rice Burrough's Mars, science cost us fantastic Venusian civilizations. Blasted science.
  - mechanical_fish 17y ago
    On the plus side, we now have the green light to land humans on Venus without fear of contaminating any telepathic swamp-dwelling aliens. The argument still holds for Mars, though. It is fun to watch the SF writers relocate the dragons as the edges of the map get filled in. Europa is the new Venus. Clarke shifted the stage in 2010 without missing a beat.
  - euccastro 17y ago
    Well, if we accidentally exterminated a race of telepathic tin wave surfing aliens, that would be a shame! Is it already established that life needs water, carbon, and earth-like conditions?
    - ori_b 17y ago
      Certainly not. In theory, any self-replicating molecule that can operate with random errors in the replication can support evolution, and therefore eventually lead to something vaguely like life.
DanielBMarkham 17y ago
Yet if we are trying to visit/colonize other planets, at some point this will have to change, right? Unless you think we're looking for livable planets with no life already on them, at some point natural evolution and propagation of the species calls for us to mix the ecosystem, right? This is something I've always been confused about. I'm not trying to argue with you, just understand some of the premises.

chrischen 17y ago

Do you really need to sterilize something before sending it to Venus?

jerf 17y ago
In real life, no, but before it was discovered that under the clouds of Venus lies a surface where tin is a liquid, Venus was home to tropical jungles full of large, dangerous critters, and enormous swamp-based civilizations. Venus was also strangely prone to generating aliens with telepathy. Just as science cost us Edgar Rice Burrough's Mars, science cost us fantastic Venusian civilizations. Blasted science.
- mechanical_fish 17y ago
  On the plus side, we now have the green light to land humans on Venus without fear of contaminating any telepathic swamp-dwelling aliens. The argument still holds for Mars, though. It is fun to watch the SF writers relocate the dragons as the edges of the map get filled in. Europa is the new Venus. Clarke shifted the stage in 2010 without missing a beat.
- euccastro 17y ago
  Well, if we accidentally exterminated a race of telepathic tin wave surfing aliens, that would be a shame! Is it already established that life needs water, carbon, and earth-like conditions?
  - ori_b 17y ago
    Certainly not. In theory, any self-replicating molecule that can operate with random errors in the replication can support evolution, and therefore eventually lead to something vaguely like life.

DanielBMarkham 17y ago

Yet if we are trying to visit/colonize other planets, at some point this will have to change, right? Unless you think we're looking for livable planets with no life already on them, at some point natural evolution and propagation of the species calls for us to mix the ecosystem, right? This is something I've always been confused about. I'm not trying to argue with you, just understand some of the premises.