[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Back-contamination

Hi Gene

---Gene Marlin  wrote:
>
> >BUT FIRST,
> > needed to make all this certain, in other words that Mars was indeed
> > dead.

> That defies common sense.

Not really.  The biologists make sense, and the 
conclusion is commonly held.

> For all of the science payoffs JPL has given
> us, their robots can never replace manned >exploration. Robots alone
> can't get down in canyons and turn rocks over and hunt fossils. 

While the human body is a remarkable machine, robots are perfectly
capable of performing both of these tasks. (Though I willingly concede
NASA's Dante robot did leave a lot to be desired, there is really no
need to go down canyons in order to get a pretty good answer to the
question of whether anything is living on Mars.)

>Humans
> can. Your biologists want Mars closed off for what will take unmanned
> probes millennia to accomplish.

Several (2-3) long range (100 kilometer) rovers, with 1 or possibly 2
sample returns, should be enough to 
make a pretty good first assesment.  At current funding
levels this should take about 10-20 years.

> > I don't know if its particularly wise to make flat out assertions
> > about hypothetical life forms which may or may not exist. I don't
do it.
 
> Why, simple logic!
Follow-Ups: