If all the supposed "lethalities" ascribed to Mars -- the cold, the carbon dioxide, the dust, the ultraviolet flux, the battery acid that apparently substitutes for flowing water, the super-oxidants and hyper-oxidants presumed to make up so much of the soil, er, regolith, now the H202 snow, and on and on and on, were absolute barriers to biology as has been claimed, we probably wouldn't be around to contemplate the horror of it all.

First, there has been no observation or measurement of any of the postulated super-oxidants in the Martian soil, er, regolith. The ultraviolet flux has not been measured. The battery acid has not been encountered. The lethality of the dust has not been quantified. Lethal snow has not yet been seen to fall.

All of these horrors and then some are hypothetical.

Second, what has been found -- limited as it is -- indicates that while biology may not be abundant on Mars, there is no fundamental reason to believe it is absent. It may be, but we are not even close to knowing that yet.

Not even close.

Need to do more on Mars itself and rely less on laboratory simulations.