Microbes may be able to survive on Mars according to new simulations of the Martian environment. Researchers used a device called the Andromeda Chamber to simulate Martian conditions. They discovered that microorganisms called methanogens could grow at low pressures. They say their findings imply that life could have existed on the Red Planet in the past, present, or at some point in the future.
May 28th, 2002
Mars ice could flood planet
Scientists have revealed the full technical details of their discovery of vast reservoirs of ice beneath the Martian surface. So much ice has been found in the polar regions that if it were to melt it would deluge the planet. The ice may stretch far underground to regions where it is warm, raising the possibility of warm caverns of meltwater in which scientists hesitantly speculate conditions could be suitable for life. But they caution that we may never know until we have rock and ice samples returned to Earth by an unmanned probe for analysis.
May 22nd, 2002
Environmental Impact Tech Central Station
Last week I wrote about environmental issues growing out of human missions to Mars, and the obligation of the United States (and other space powers) under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty to prevent “harmful contamination” of Mars. But what about beneficial contamination? Mars, as far as we can tell, is a dead world. Even if it turns out to host some forms of life, they are almost certain to be limited to bacteria, akin to the extremophiles that populate places like volcanoes, undersea thermal vents, and deep subsurface rock formations, and their distribution is likely to be similarly circumscribed. Algae would be big, big news. But Mars needn’t remain dead (or near-dead). For several decades people have been looking at “terraforming” Mars by giving it an earthlike – or at least more earthlike – climate. (For the technically inclined, there is a superb engineering textbook on the subject, Martyn Fogg’s Terraforming: Engineering Planetary Environments, a thoroughly practical book published by the thoroughly practical SAE).
March 12th, 2002
Once Upon a Water Planet
Today the Red Planet is dry and barren, but what about tomorrow? New data suggest that the long story of water on Mars isn’t over yet. Mars was once wet, but now it is dry. Spacecraft photos of Mars reveal signs of ancient rivers, lakes and maybe even an ocean. They might have been filled with water billions of years ago, but something happened — no one knows what — and the planet became a global desert. Wherever the moisture went, new data suggest it might not be gone for good. Indeed, water may have flowed on Mars literally as recent as “yesterday or last year,” declares James Garvin, Chief Scientist for Mars exploration at NASA headquarters. Evidence is mounting that water lies beneath the Martian terrain, he says. Furthermore, every few centuries weather conditions might become clement enough for that water to “come and go” on the surface as well.
January 5th, 2002
The Test Tube Forest Business 2.0
Scientists are rapidly developing technology for genetically engineering fast-growing supertrees. The economic advantages for timber companies seem clear. The environmental repercussions are less certain. Forest biotechnology, scientits predict, will ultimately transform such disparate industries as housing and fuel; some even suggest that this technology may help humankind colonize Mars. “Genetically engineered trees could produce gasoline or alcohol or almost any other chemical from sunlight,” says Freeman Dyson, a professor of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. “Think of tapping trees for chemicals the way you tap them for maple syrup — the possibilities are marvelous.”
December 14th, 2001
NU scientists create plant that could grow on Mars Australian Associated Press
Imagine turning the barren red planet Mars into a lush green oasis. Aside from the small problem of finding enough water, scientists have developed just the plant to do it. Actually, many different plant types could be used, but they would have to be modified with a gene known as Rubisco. Professor John Andrews and Dr Spencer Whitney, from the Australian National University’s Research School of Biological Sciences, have led the world’s first team to successfully replace a key enzyme of photosynthesis that converts carbon dioxide to plant sugar. Professor Andrews said the team had genetically inserted a bacterial version of the gene Rubisco which is able to grow in an atmosphere much like that on Mars.
December 7th, 2001
Mars could be undergoing major global warming New Scientist
Mars is undergoing global warming that could profoundly change the planet’s climate in a few thousand years, new data suggests. High-resolution images taken by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor show that the permanent south polar “ice” cap shrank significantly between two successive Martian summers – a period roughly corresponding to two Earth years. If the trend continues at the same rate and the polar cap is entirely frozen carbon dioxide, “the whole cap would be evaporated in a few thousand years,” Mike Caplinger of Malin Space Science Systems told New Scientist. This would release enough carbon dioxide to give Mars an atmosphere one-tenth the density of the Earth’s. “That takes us from a situation of working in a near vacuum with a space suit to being able to run around on the surface with an oxygen mask and a heavy coat. It’s what the terraforming people were always talking about,” says Caplinger.
December 7th, 2001
Red Planet Warming
High-resolution images snapped by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor show that levels of frozen water and carbon dioxide at the Red Planet’s poles have dwindled dramatically
September 5th, 2001
Antarctic plants resist ozone hole
The unique flora of Antarctica appears to be resisting damage from the ozone hole over the South Pole far better than anyone expected, Dutch scientists say. The hole has triggered fears that Antarctica’s fragile plants could suffer severe DNA damage as they are exposed to higher intensities of ultra-violet light, which is normally filtered out by the ozone layer in the stratosphere. But a team led by Daniela Lud from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology in Yerseke says many plant species seem to have a repair kit that enables them to fix any damage almost overnight, the British weekly New Scientist reports in next Saturday’s issue.
September 4th, 2001
Human Habitats at Mars: Defending Against Contamination
With the prospects for finding life at Mars looking up, proponents of elaborate human settlements there are ready to defend themselves against charges of contaminating what’s possibly already thriving there. And so-called terraforming advocates already have some scientists on their side, offering up data and theories that can be used to bolster the case for transforming the Red Planet into an Earth II. Tantalizing images returned in the past 18 months from robotic probes have shown Mars to be an astounding planet. Liquid water may have been active in recent geologic times, suggesting that past and even present life on Mars is a decent bet.