From the L.A. Times
For all the hopes NASA has pinned on the rover it deposited on Mars last month, one wish has gone unspoken: Please don't find water.
Scientists don't believe they will. They chose the cold, dry equatorial landing site in Mars' Gale Crater for its geology, not its prospects for harboring water or ice, which exist elsewhere on the planet.
But if by chance the rover Curiosity does find H2O, a controversy that has simmered at NASA for nearly a year will burst into the open. Curiosity's drill bits may be contaminated with Earth microbes. If they are, and if those bits touch water, the organisms could survive.
More here
Microbes have been shown to be tough little guys, having the ability to live in the extremes of the universe. With continued visits to the planet since the mid-1960's, we may just have brought life to the planet ourselves. That said, who is to say that nature, via panspermia, has not done this already.
For all the hopes NASA has pinned on the rover it deposited on Mars last month, one wish has gone unspoken: Please don't find water.
Scientists don't believe they will. They chose the cold, dry equatorial landing site in Mars' Gale Crater for its geology, not its prospects for harboring water or ice, which exist elsewhere on the planet.
But if by chance the rover Curiosity does find H2O, a controversy that has simmered at NASA for nearly a year will burst into the open. Curiosity's drill bits may be contaminated with Earth microbes. If they are, and if those bits touch water, the organisms could survive.
More here
Microbes have been shown to be tough little guys, having the ability to live in the extremes of the universe. With continued visits to the planet since the mid-1960's, we may just have brought life to the planet ourselves. That said, who is to say that nature, via panspermia, has not done this already.
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