I always thought NASA's search for life anywhere, was focused on looking for 'life-as-we-know-it', and the only 'life-as-we-know-it', is what surrounds us here on Earth.
So, the next rover mission to Mars is Curiosity, (scheduled for lift-off between 25 Nov to 18th Dec, this year). Its primary mission is to assess Mars' habitability and whether or not Mars has ever been capable of supporting microbial life. It carries a whole bunch of spectrometers and chemical laboratory instruments for detecting primarily, methane ... deemed to be a by-product of all life on Earth and hence, is the key indicator of Mars life.
Ok .. then this article about a recent study by the University of Florida/Space Life Sciences Lab at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre turns up today:
Microbe risk when rover wheels hit martian dirt which basically argues that any microbes carried aboard Mars rovers, are unlikely to survive more than a few hours in the Mars' environment. I have read elsewhere that there are at least 13 separate factors on Mars that can kill Earth microbes (not counting Mars' perchlorate salts).
This infers that even the hardiest of 'life-as-we-know-it', can't live long on Mars.
So if this is the case, why are are they searching for organic compounds and methane by-products on the surface of Mars?
It would seem clear that we already know that 'life-as-we-know-it', cannot survive at, or near, the surface (from bio-physics)… so all this probe can do, is confirm what we already know … or uncover 'life-as-we-
don't-know-it' !
So NASA is looking for 'life-as-we-
don't-know-it ? .. this news to me, and the rover's design would seem to be a very, very desperate, fundamentally flawed way of looking for 'life-as-we-
don't-know-it' !
I really hope they do detect something … if they did .. a manned mission would be inevitable ..
Cheers