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Andean Bioexpedition To Highest Lake Mimics Old Mars

Posted by Hemos on Monday October 21, 2002 @12:05AM from the examing-the-past-to-see-the-future dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The analogy between the highest lake on Earth and extremes on Mars has NASA Ames and the SETI Institute collaborating to analyze microbial samples. The combination of high ultraviolet radiation, low oxygen, low atmospheric pressure approximates the closest one can come to what Mars was like 3.5 billion years ago when it was wet and warm. The expedition page has a running schedule for the next 3 weeks."

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Re:3.5 million years ago ? by f97tosc · 2002-10-21 05:42 · Score: 4, Insightful

Sure, our knowledge of Mars 3.5 billion years ago is probably pretty sketchy. However, we don't have to know that much to figure out which parts of today's Earth are the best approximation. I think we can be pretty confident that a very high altitude (dry, cold, thinner atmosphere) is better than a very low one (moist, warm, thick atmosphere).

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