Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to ET life

Not many life searching dedicated missions after 50 years
Socrates II — (archived)

How many space probes have we sent into the void that were
designed to look for alien life? And even the few times when we
did, they were often designed to look for life in ways that turned
out to be insufficient (the Viking Mars landers).

Flybys from hundreds and thousands of miles, even orbiting, are
not going to find microbes under a moon or planet's surface. We
are nowhere near where we should be to declare no life on other
worlds like we thought we might be back in 1957. Maybe in one
hundred years, if we still have a space program, if we haven't
even found a fossil, then we can start wondering properly.

Same thing with SETI, which is about as old and about as
limited in actual obseving time, technology, and ideas of what
to look for.

We're barely out the door when it comes to seeking alien life of
any kind, period. We had to start somewhere, but you might think
that such an important and exciting question would have had a lot
more effort behind it trying to find the answers.

Maybe in a century from now.

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