(November 8, 2013 at 10:11 pm)Zazzy Wrote: I want SO BAD for us to discover alien microbes on Mars, or anywhere else. Fuck intelligent interplanetary humanoid aliens. I want MICROBIAL aliens.

Europa. My sights are set on Europa. Please, PLEASE let me have alien microbes before I die. Please?

I'm in two minds about this.
Finding Martian microbes would be awesome, BUT would also possibly delay or even stop any possible colonisation/ terraforming of Mars by their presence.

(November 9, 2013 at 2:44 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: I'm in two minds about this.
Finding Martian microbes would be awesome, BUT would also possibly delay or even stop any possible colonisation/ terraforming of Mars by their presence.

Well, ruining native life has never stopped us before.

I'd rather have a chance to see alien life than terraform Mars, although it's possible I'm weird about this- and finding them would kind of indicate that the planet was already inhabited (although, again, humans have never before much cared about prior inhabitants before now). Just seeing what another natural digital information system looks like would be unbelievable. What if it was DNA? We'd have to look at panspermia more seriously.

Oh, please, please, please.

Quote:Finding Martian microbes would be awesome,

With all the hardware we've landed how would one rule out contamination?

(November 9, 2013 at 5:32 pm)Minimalist Wrote:

Quote:Finding Martian microbes would be awesome,

With all the hardware we've landed how would one rule out contamination?

An interesting paper on this- it's not likely.

Still, the exobiologists squabble about this.

Quote:Either way, it’s all about the limits of adaptability

Of course, life on earth has adapted to all sorts of environments. Curiously, (a fact often lost on creatards) is that most of our own planet - you know the one that was designed specially for us by the big invisible sky-daddy - would kill us in short order without protective measures.

(November 9, 2013 at 10:50 pm)Zazzy Wrote:

(November 9, 2013 at 5:32 pm)Minimalist Wrote: With all the hardware we've landed how would one rule out contamination?

An interesting paper on this- it's not likely.

Still, the exobiologists squabble about this.

I was going to make a joke about ether, but it really isn't worth it