Comments on: Russia Will Send Life to Phobos

By: Vanamonde

Vanamonde — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 05:02:16 +0000

Well, it does make some sense to put the wee beasties into space for some time. But why drop then on Phobos? We are no 100% sure that nothing is there? Who expect Venus to be so hot? Or Mars to have such thin air? Or an ocean on Europa.

I vote for caution. Like Putin cares.

By: Naia

Naia — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:39:41 +0000

Sorry about bad proof reading. Shuld have spelled "crazy" right, and also: c) WHY does a…

By: Naia

Naia — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:34:46 +0000

Actually, Lawrence B. Crowell's comment is eminent and would deserve to be the last in this debate. – But still I have to say: Three things in Rodrigo's comment baffle me. a) Why can't he belive people honestly expounding their views, black on white? b) Why should a possible scientist in our hearts be crayzy, why not sane? c) What does a "passion by the universe and the unknown" exclude any apprehensiveness regarding "contamination"? – Kind regards to all.

By: Lawrence B. Crowell

Lawrence B. Crowell — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:00:57 +0000

We should explore Mars for possible extraterrestrial life, or molecular traces for maybe prebiotic processes early on. Sending biological specimins to Mars has got to be the stupidest thing imaginable. This would amount to data contamination. Maybe Earth life or bacteria has made it to Mars by secondary meteoroids produced by impacts here, but let's not intentionally introduced bio-contaminents on a planet which might have valuable data.

I really doubt we are going to colonize Mars, at least not any time really soon.

Lawrence B. Crowell

By: Aqua

Aqua — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:35:48 +0000

Hopefully the Russians have taken the issue of contamination into their equation? Who do we ask, "What's being done about that?" In fact, I think we all should ask…

By: Rodrigo

Rodrigo — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:06:56 +0000

I just can't believe how there is people reading this news and not supporting it.

where is the crazy scientist inside your hearts ?

How can you be so scared about "contamination" if we, universetoday reader's, have something in common, that is, the passion by the universe and the unknown.

As far as i know, i will try to follow this field test step by step, it's sounds amazingly interesting.

By: Frank Glover

Frank Glover — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:01:49 +0000

"Who cares if they contaminate Phobos?

At * most * there are some microbes or bacteria there… and if there is, I don't care."

It's a safe bet that nothing lives on the asteroid-like moons of Mars, and I'm no more concerned about Earth-life endign up there (it would almost certinly just curl up and die) than I am with Earth's Moon. But…

…Anything sent to the Moon, if it misses, will stay more or less in cisclunar space, perhaps one day eventually impacting Earth or the Moon, no harm no foul. Any kind of navigational or propulsion accident near MARS however (and such has happened to both sides before…indeed, the Russians thed to have very bad luck at Mars), risks impacting and contaminating Mars, possibly making it very difficult for subsequent landers to know if any evidence of biology is native or imported. (This should be obvious, but some people here seem to need that spelled out.)

If the Russians want do do a long-duration space biology experiment, don't let recent events make you think that all possible Earth orbts are full…

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:50:30 +0000

Whats the big fuss we will end up colonizing mars sooner or later.

Joe.TO.

By: Bonr

Bonr — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:31:38 +0000

Don't they follow the Prime Directive?!!

/sorry, also the best I could do.
// and also needed to be said!!

By: Naia

Naia — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:22:06 +0000

Of course the universe exists for us to experiment with, be the scale small or large, the risks and possible suffering calculated by us. Isn't this called anthropocentrism or human supremacy? I believe Carl Sagan, among others, has had something to say about the attitude.

By: hiro

hiro — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:53:08 +0000

Why don't we send it to Venus or Mercury? I just wonder whether these bateria & insects etc… can survive in these extreme environments.

By: Benevolent B

Benevolent B — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:46:50 +0000

In Soviet Russia – New Overlords Welcome YOU!!

/sorry best I could do.
//but it needed to be said!

~]3

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 13:51:33 +0000

Russia and the Planetary Society declare biological war on the Martians!

By: marcellus

marcellus — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 13:39:35 +0000

Screw Phobos. Send 'em up!

By: UK David

UK David — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 13:37:36 +0000

A lander mission to Phobos is an exciting prospect in itself.

Not sure if taking a jar of insects adds greatly to the mission – but Phobos has tremendous potential as a natural holding location for fuels and supplies in future manned missions to Mars, so I imagine Phobos will see lots of life on it in the next few hundred years!

By: hagnat

hagnat — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:16:01 +0000

> spores… do what ever spores do.

be the most overrated hype from last year ? have awful drm restrictions ? be forgotten after a week play ?

By: Katie

Katie — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 11:45:39 +0000

do everything possible to prevent contamination and hope like hell that this isn't the one time that the cosmic random number generator rolls a 73950923.

Now that sentence makes sense, missed it in the proof read.

By: Katie

Katie — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 11:44:01 +0000

The chances of one of Mars' captured moons bearing life or the remnants there of is incredibly low statistically based on all the variables as I understand it, which is why they are heading to Phobos rather than to Mars proper for this experiment. Mars has the real potential to have been home to life at some point in its history; we now have compelling evidence of flowing liquid water and Mars has an atmosphere albeit a thin one, but there are suggestions that this was not always the case. As a result of this, any mission involving Earth flora or fauna (including micro flora and fauna) would obviously create a very real risk of contamination, but the only way to understand the affects of a trip to Mars on living cells and living entities is to travel the distance to Mars and back. However, as Jorge mentioned, single purpose space missions are financially impractical so the best compromise is to hitch a lift to Phobos, do everything possible to prevent contamination and hope like hell that this isn't the one time that the cosmic random number generator doesn't roll a 73950923.

By: NNM

NNM — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 11:21:25 +0000

heh, I always pictures a mission like that…
Only difference: I would have it purposely "contaminate" a planet… Throw seeds all over the place, bacteria, etc..!
And "see what happens" (in 100 000 years…).

By: Miss Conception

Miss Conception — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:46:28 +0000

Yael Dragwyla says:

" …when a man and woman get together to have a baby, his sperm combines with her ovum to make what will become a baby"

Oh my god!!!! I thought it was a stork!
Mummy lied!! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

By: Yael Dragwyla

Yael Dragwyla — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:31:39 +0000

There's another way of looking at this. When two eukaryotic organisms — vertebrates, invertebrates, take your pick — get together and interact sexually, offspring result, and those offspring have genes from *both* parents. (There are some exceptions, but not that many.) In fact, microbes — both bacteria and viruses — swap genes with one another as well as with eukarya all the time, acting as messengers taking information from organism to organism all over the planet. The result is evolution (and lots of fun, but that's another story) going beyond what a given lineage of organisms can do on its own. What it *isn't* is disease or war — when a man and woman get together to have a baby, his sperm combines with her ovum to make what will become a baby, and in most cases no violence or disease is involved. That's what Earth is trying to do: send her genes out to the universe at large, letting them fall where they may, hoping to make babies with other celestial bodies, and there's nothing wrong with it. Life on Earth probably began in some little niche in the rock or puddle somewhere, and then spread out across the planet. Was that invasion of or war on the rest of the Earth? No, it was life doing what life always does, reaching for the future by expanding into all possible habitats. The only direction left for Earthly life to expand into is straight up — but that's great, because perhaps out there Earthly life will finally run into our planetary soul-mates and make beautiful babies with them.

By: Michael Paine

Michael Paine — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 08:44:39 +0000

Please see the Planetary Society information on this mission at:
http://planetary.org/programs/projects/life/
Including the FAQ "Is it likely that this experiment could contaminate Mars with life, thus confusing future searches for life on Mars? "

By: Max

Max — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:27:45 +0000

There is always the risk of an accidental contamination from manned missions or improperly sterilized robots… but that would be in the process of trying to accomplish some meaningful science.

We already know bacteria and simple organisms can survive in space so that part of the pan-spermia equation is resolved.
What we need now is to find life on other worlds and figure out if its related to life from here. The ideal would be to go on mars and find something in the soil that is distinctive yet still very similar to earth life (or not similar at all…)

Protecting anything existing on mars from life on earth would greatly further the study of pan-spermia and other theories. I think we can strike a reasonable compromise between exploration and science.

By: Jorge

Jorge — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:57:17 +0000

why send it to Phobos at all? Why not send it to a mars-sun distant orbit while keeping well away from mars itself…that will reduce the chance of cross contamination, while still putting the lifeforms through the same rigors of earth-mars spacetravel…

Because we don't have a mission going to a "mars-sun distant orbit" except those going to Mars itself. Space missions are very expensive. This is one experiment in a mission that includes a multitude of other experiments. There's no way a dedicated mission could be founded just to study the behaviour of biological specimens at martian distances unless it's doing also other studies of Mars and/or its moons.

By: Bob Bobicans

Bob Bobicans — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:47:26 +0000

Russia is at it again!