...c'mon ep I expect a clearer rant than that.
Life on Mars is not a back contamination issue anymore than a deep sea dredge or deep-drilling core. We're talking about bugs in a marginal environment, not our colons or other warm-blooded organisms. AFAIK no one has ever gotten sick from a deep sea sample or a deep drilling core, whereas we all risk some horrible critter in our lungs or blood stream everytime we dig in the garden.
Craig Venter's crew looking for new microbes in the ocean haven't brought back plague organisms and neither will Mars astronauts - so can that crap EP. Asteroid deflection needs to stand on its own as a credible mission. So far the data is against the doom-sayers, but decent money needs to spent on basic research so we're half-way ready. Current options face too many unknowns - eg. nukes/impactors won't stop rubble piles, we have no space-based solar-pumped laser experience for deflection via laser to be a well defined option, and no space-worthy nuclear-powered plasma rockets. We need real, solid engineering experience.
Adam
Space/Science » in reply to oh joy... more ef***g good news
more incoherent than usual
The whole thread (32 posts)
- Latest news story on methane on Mars
- "Space agency denies report about Red Planet life"
- A lot more on this from "Badastronomy.com"
- Is there a difference between methane from life or volcanoes?
- I am STILL on record for believing that there IS INDEED life on Mars.
- NASA Ames team claiming "evidence of life" in CH4
- If it withstands peer review, it could be a real spur for more Mars exploration. (n/t)