Group Plans to Bring Martian Sample to Earth

sm62704 (mcgrew) writes "New Scientist has a story about IMARS (the International Mars Architecture for Return Samples) planning to bring samples of Martian soil to earth. The robotic mission would be a needed precursor to manned trips to the red planet. Also, international cooperation is necessary since the US has already nixed bankrolling manned Mars missions."

Comments

Re:I wonder if we should.

[morgan_greywolf]

Agreed. I fear Earth will soon face an epidemic of The Andromeda Strain . After all Crichton was a doctor, he should know. A lot of what's in Crichton's work is pseudoscience at best. Take Jurassic Park. None of the DNA that has been captured from dinosaur fossils is in good enough condition to produce a clone ... and all likelihood no sample will ever be found that could be used for cloning. It's also mentioned that all life is inherently female and that it's only the introduction of the Y chromosome that makes a zygote male. Not quite. What really happens is that there are X sperm and Y sperm. So, from conception, a zygote already carries the sex chromosome. Now it is true that the Y chromosome doesn't get activated until sometime after development when a certain hormone gets introduced. The failure of the Y chromosome to activate is actually the cause of a rare but serious disease.

I've been reading Crichton's Next and I have to say that it's got some good science in there -- but there's a lot of pseudoscience in there too.

So, I wouldn't take The Andromeda Strain as gospel for what might happen. Samples taken from the moon obviously haven't wiped out life on Earth, why should we believe that samples taken from Mars would?

Just plain stupid (proposed) law.

[DougF]

From: http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1012/1

The House of Representatives version of HR 3093, the bill that determines NASA's funding for 2008, effectively bans the study of an entire planet:

Provided, That none of the funds under this heading shall be used for any research, development, or demonstration activities related exclusively to the human exploration of Mars.

The House committee report mentions the proposed prohibition: Finally, bill language is included prohibiting funding of any research, development, or demonstration activities related exclusively to the human exploration of Mars.

Now, this leaves a loophole large enough to drive an M-1 Abrams through, but it's still just plain stupidity.