Slashdot Mirror
Earth Microbes May Survive On Mars
Vicissidude writes "New Scientist is reporting that terrestrial microbes who hitch a ride to Mars on spacecraft may be able to survive under special circumstances." From the article: "...Mars's thin atmosphere allows such intense ultraviolet radiation to reach the planet's surface - triple that found on Earth - that any life inadvertently carried on the spacecraft is thought to be wiped out quickly...However, the bacteria were able to stay alive if they were shielded by just 1 millimeter of soil during the tests, which ran for up to 24 hours. Under such a protective coating, the bacteria could survive - and potentially grow - under the high Martian UV flux if water and nutrient requirements for growth were met."
..when the Apollo 12 crew brought back a camera from Surveyor 3. Some microorganisms survived a few years on the moon. See a nasa page for details.
The problem is holding on to that atmosphere. Mars has weak gravity and a weak magnetic field. That allows light atoms and molecules to escape into space, and it's aggravated by the solar wind.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
"little eating machines with no guarantee they will do anything except consume all the resources they can."
Yes, that's pretty much what life is. The next stage is to add something that consumes the bacteria.
Deleted
According to my astronomy teacher, when the Sun started fusing hydrogen, it blew out the light and volatile material from the inner solar system. That's why the inner planets are mostly rock and iron. When you get to Jupiter and beyond, the planets captured most of the light and volatile material. Titan's surface temperature is very low, so that helps reduce the rate at which it loses its atmosphere. Its atmosphere is mostly molecular nitrogen, which is a relatively heavy molecule. It may have already lost almost all of the hydrogen and helium that was in its early atmosphere.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat