Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to re: Flags and Footprints or finding the orgins of life itself?

re: This is a red herring: It's not an either or question. We can both look for Martian life and Explore the surface with Humans.
Chris Vancil — (archived)

Barry wrote: Exactly Chris, and the reason humans will not be allowed to explore Mars until a thorough study of any Martian microorganisms has been made. Every human carries billions of terrestrial microbes on their bodies, some of which could adapt and grow in some Martian environments. To send a human crew to Mars before any life there was thoroughly studied, would contaminate the planet to the point of making it useless for the study of life.

Chris writes: Barry you are afraid of technology. It is evidenced in almost every post of yours. Any of the engineers on this board could come up with dozens of ways to reduce the number of human hosted microbes entering into the Martian environment form a Spacesuit person. But all microbes on a person have virtually zero chance of surviving on Mars' surface exposed to the dry, UV environment.

Barry wrote: The big questions are: Do we need flags and footprints? Or do we want knowledge about the origins of life?

Chris writes: And if there is no life on Mars how many years do you feel we should waste? BTW, I've state I dont feel yopu can reasonably discribe a year long mission as Flags and Footprints.

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