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BOLD Plan To Find Mars Life On the Cheap
techfun89 writes "There is a BOLD new plan for detecting signs of microbial life on Mars. The nickname is BOLD, which stands for Biological Oxidant and Life Detection Initiative, would be a follow-up to the 1976 Mars Viking life-detection experiments. 'We have much better technology that we could use,' says BOLD lead scientist Dirk Schulze-Makuch, with Washington State University. He elaborates, 'Our idea is to make a relatively cheap mission and go more directly to characterize and solve the big question about the soil properties on Mars and life detection.' To help figure out the life-detection mystery, Schulze-Makuch and his colleagues would fly a set of six pyramid-shaped probes that would crash land, pointy end down, so they embed themselves four to eight inches into the soil. One of the instruments includes a sensor that can detect a single molecule of DNA or other nucleotide."
Because there is bugger all down here on earth
Just run this as a joint mission between the US and the EU, problem solved.
Looks more like an all-caps plan to me.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
The B.O.L.D. program hinges on detecting oxygen exchange
What if the life form on Mars uses N2 instead?
Nitrogen is a bit on the inert side to be useful as life's energy source.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
For one, there's an eight-minute lag between here and Mars, and AFAIK, machine vision algorithms are not yet advanced enough to identify a generalized bacterium-shape among all the crystals and debris in a Martian soil sample. You'd need real-time human oversight for that.
Also, I'm not sure whether the optics would survive such a landing, but that's beside the point.
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
but I'm sober. How is it that life as we know it, consciousness, sentience, etc. is not enough? Think about it. Same universe. Same galaxy. Isn't life (as we know/call it) even in ONE place... enough? Beyond amazing, beyond impossible, totally and utterly improbable... yet here we are! So we get to mars and find a small pond of goo with some amino acids and proteins in it. So what? What's the big deal?
FTFS: "One of the instruments includes a sensor that can detect a single molecule of DNA or other nucleotide."
I wonder how many DNA molecules the probe might encounter on its way to Mars.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
The B.O.L.D. program hinges on detecting oxygen exchange
What if the life form on Mars uses N2 instead?
Nitrogen is a bit on the inert side to be useful as life's energy source.
Well, what if they just breathe iron? You know, like some of the creatures here on Earth. Mars has lot's of iron... it has sulfer, and even some water. I suppose the life on Earth currently uses oxygen, so that's what we're looking for? I mean, what about The Great Oxidation Catastrophe? During which lots of this planet's anaerobic life was likely killed off (oxygen was poisonous to them, they didn't use it). Point being: We don't even know what to look for -- we have hardly any idea what the parameters of life are on our own planet. Until recently we thought nothing could survive at the bottom of the ocean, boy was that wrong.
I guess you've got to begin looking somewhere, and looking for the presence of life as we know it is a good start. However, all evidence will be inconclusive as to the existence of life unless they actually find life, or we do a whole lot more exploration of Mars than we've done of our own planet.
They should make a seventh probe, and aim it at the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valles_Marineris. It's kilometres deep so the atmosphere down there ought to be thicker (it's certainly more turbulent). Assuming Mars once had a thick atmosphere and running water (which seems to be the prevailing consensus) then it seems to me that the place that environment and any possible inhabitants would have been preserved longest is in the Valles.
Unless, of course, this huge crack in Mars was the epicentre of some great event that stripped away the atmosphere in the first place...
No, you don't need machine vision algorithms or real-time human intervention. People often deal with much bigger delays in analyzing microscope images on earth. Phoenix actually had a microscope, they just aren't good at detecting bacteria.
a set of six pyramid-shaped probes
So that's what the title of the Doctor Who episode was referring to! I wonder if the probes will locate Sutekh.
Mars may be smaller than Terra, but it's still an awfully big place. Even if life exists or once existed on Mars, there's no guarantees its presence would leave a mark everywhere. Six immovable probes might find nothing and STILL not answer the question. The only way we get a useful answer at all from just six bullets fired into the dunes is that one of them actually finds something; if they find nothing it still doesn't disprove the presence of life.
It's great that the people behind this want to make names for themselves, but we need to think - and plan and budget - much bigger than this if we truly want a definitive answer. This plan with a spaghetti western budget won't give us one. It's essentially a waste of time. Bold, yes, but also pointless where the stated goal is concerned.
Because we can't reliably detect unknown life on THIS planet with an optical microscope?
Even if life exists or once existed on Mars, there's no guarantees its presence would leave a mark everywhere.
If it's anything like terrestrial life, it would.
But you are right in that this project will not give a definitive answer. There are many points of failure, the instruments can go wrong, the craft can introduce contamination to the sample etc. The only solid proof would be returning some soil sample to earth and finding the actual bacteria in it, but currently that's out of our reach both financially and technically.
It's great that the people behind this want to make names for themselves, but we need to think - and plan and budget - much bigger than this if we truly want a definitive answer. This plan with a spaghetti western budget won't give us one.
An even better plan is to do a few simple experiments do help decide on what the big plan should be. If we can eliminate a few things first then it can make the big plan a whole lot cheaper.
No sig today...
If and when that happens, it will be it's own distinct accomplishment. It will hold it's own distinct scientific discovery. If we could transplant life to Mars and it could take hold, Mars will have life. It would be a huge indicator that Panspermia is a good hypothesis. We only have one Mars, so we have to think about what scientific questions we want answered from it. If we contaminate it, then we can do experiments that revolve around putting Earth life on non Earth planets.