Expert: Tom Whiting - 7/11/2008

Question
Okay, so what's the big deal about sending a robotic "geologist" to Mars to see if there's sufficient water to have given life a home?  We've known for over 40 years that the polar ice caps are chock full of H2O.   When combined with Mars' atmosphere and plenty of sun to power photosynthesis, etc., make it seem like a very good bet that life did exist there, at least at one time?

Answer
Hi Jim,
Actually, it's not a very good bet at all! I wouldn't put any
money on it.  Reason: the liquid water phase on Mars probably didn't
last long enough for life to evolve, back then, 2 billion years ago.
And there's too much sunlight; without atmospheric oxygen and it's ozone component, a 30 minute sunburn on Mars is fatal to any and all carbon-based life. (And always has been). We thusfar, have found no evidence of life, past or present, just the chemicals that would have made it possible under the right conditions. So....

Astrobiology is still a course without a subject. ;-)

In reality, in a way you are correct...This "past life" bullcr*p is all for the public interest and faked publicity....to garnish
government monies to support a return to the Moon and Mars.
(Nothing wrong with that, of course, in my opinion).
The REAL reason for the near-polar landing was to substantiate the presence of water ice below the surface (availability) just south of the polar cap, as opposed to carbon dioxide ice below the surface, for a future base there.      Why, you ask?

Because humans can't go to Mars this century unless there is water ice there...we can't be hauling all that water (water is very heavy)
out there for two astronauts for nearly 3 years (6 month voyage,
26 months until Mars comes to opposition again, and a 6 month
voyage home and exchange crews).  So until we have a starship Enterprise, we NEED water ice in position...the same is true for a lunar base at its pole too; there has to be water there, or else we ain't going there (permanently) any time soon either. That's why there is now a rush of spacecraft to the moon to determine if any
of the polar craters contain water ice!   One cubic yard of
water weighs nearly a ton...we can haul oxygen, dehydrated food,
but not water for an extended mission. So there HAS to be water there, or else we ain't going there (or anywhere!) for several hundred years. The existence of water ice HAD to be definitively
proven, as opposed to any other type of...ice.
So now you know the rest of the story.
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA