Posted on 02/26/2009 4:53:53 AM PST by DBCJR
No one knows if there is life on Mars, but if all goes well with a Russian science mission later this year, there will be life on the Martian moon Phobos -- for a short time anyway.
An assortment of critters and microbes are scheduled to make a round-trip journey to Phobos as passengers aboard a Russian spacecraft, scheduled to launch in October.
The mission, called Phobos-Grunt, aims to return samples of the Martian moon to Earth for analysis. It will be the first Russian-led mission to Mars since the loss of the Phobos 1 and Phobos 2 probes in 1988 and the botched launch of the Mars 96 spacecraft.
"I wish them luck," said University of Colorado planetary scientist Larry Esposito, who was a science team member on two of the failed Russian missions.
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He's not part of the latest Russian endeavor, though he is very interested in learning more about Phobos, which is believed to be an asteroid that was pinned into orbit by the planet's gravity and became an adopted moon.
"It's an opportunity to look at a primitive body in the solar system," Esposito said.
In addition to planetary sciences, two teams of researchers are interested in learning how living organisms fare during the three-year round-trip journey to Mars.
The Pasadena, Calif.-based Planetary Society is flying 10 different species in a small canister to test a theory that life could have been carried to Earth inside meteorites. The samples include tardigrades -- also known as water bears -- seeds and microscopic bacteria.
"The organisms are being sent in a dormant state, like spores," program manager Bruce Betts told Discovery News.
Actually kind of an interesting mission despite the fact that it’s Russian. Their findings will be suspect for obvious reasons but still.
Andromeda Project?
This is definitely a slap in the face for the *Prime Directive*.
Yes, it is interesting. The findings might well answer questions about whether Mars could become a station for further space missions.
I just can’t get PETA out of my mind. We had a group from our church over one evening when snow was on the ground. My Maltese dog wanted to do his “business” and was outside on a leash. An anonymous letter was placed on my door threatening to report me to PETA for keeping my dog outside in the cold while we “partied” inside.
These people would not take kindly to sending animals to Mars.
Anyone remember jackrabbits into Australia?
The Russians sent a dog up on the second Sputnik, but were not able to bring her back to earth alive. Heartless Commies.
Yes, I think we sent up some chimps, too - or was the Planet of the Apes???
Wonderful. If this thing has a problem and crashes, either on Phobos or Mars, they they infect that environment. If they survive, perhaps they'll mutate (even if they don't) and screw up any further investigation of life on Mars as we won't know which is which.
Wonderful. If this thing has a problem and crashes, either on Phobos or Mars, they they infect that environment. If they survive, perhaps they’ll mutate (even if they don’t) and screw up any further investigation of life on Mars as we won’t know which is which.
Or they bring back infected organisms
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