wow, global warming is worse than we thought.

[bozon]

There isnt really another planet in our system that is as friendly to life as the one we are on.

I don't know which planet you are on, but mine is not friendly at all. At least on mars people are not trying to kill me.

[CAP1]

I don't know which planet you are on, but mine is not friendly at all. At least on mars people are not trying to kill me.

iiiiii dunno about that. from everything i've seen, the martian natives seem pretty unfriendly to us earthicans. 

[Chalenge]

I don't know which planet you are on, but mine is not friendly at all. At least on mars people are not trying to kill me.

Only because there is nothing organic there at all. Take off a spacesuit on Mars and its instant combustion. It turns out NASA and JPL didnt have to worry about their vehicles contaminating the environment of Mars because Mars is capable of sterilizing anything that comes into contact with it... at least on the surface. I doubt there is life there at all but if there is it is very deep within the crust and I doubt even that is possible.

[allaire]

There is a combustion problem on mars?  Funny and here I thought that if you were to remove any protective gear there you would suffocate, freeze, and die from extreme low pressure related injuries.  Turns out that you will just burst into flames.

[CAP1]

There is a combustion problem on mars?  Funny and here I thought that if you were to remove any protective gear there you would suffocate, freeze, and die from extreme low pressure related injuries.  Turns out that you will just burst into flames.

that's from the martian death ray.

[MrMeanie]

[321BAR]

  oh god

[Chalenge]

There is a combustion problem on mars?  Funny and here I thought that if you were to remove any protective gear there you would suffocate, freeze, and die from extreme low pressure related injuries.  Turns out that you will just burst into flames.

You mean you didnt learn that in school? Any organic material or their chemical traces are not chemically stable on Mars. And NO its not like you would think of 'burning' here on Earth but yes it is combustion. This was revealed in 1969 with the chemical 'lab tests' of Viking when the experiment lander type probes attempted to culture the Martian soil.

FAIL. The dreams and visions of Carl Sagan ended right then and there but he still pushed for further missions in a vain attempt to establish any evidence. Probably there has not been life on Mars ever but certainly for 500 billion years at least.

You can read about the results of all the missions in the books and journals of Bruce Murray of both JPL and NASA.

[saggs]

Only because there is nothing organic there at all. Take off a spacesuit on Mars and its instant combustion. It turns out NASA and JPL didnt have to worry about their vehicles contaminating the environment of Mars because Mars is capable of sterilizing anything that comes into contact with it... at least on the surface. I doubt there is life there at all but if there is it is very deep within the crust and I doubt even that is possible.

Richard C. Hoagland disagrees with you.

[saggs]

Probably there has not been life on Mars ever but certainly for 500 billion years at least.

OK I disagree here.  The Martian rovers proved that the surface of Mars was once covered with great oceans.  It's pretty basic, where there is water there is life.  I'd bet that at one point Mars was teeming with little microbial ocean life forms.

[allaire]

Taken from the Merriam-Webster site.

Combustion

Main Entry: com·bus·tion
Pronunciation: \kəm-ˈbəs-chən\
Function: noun
Date: 15th century

1 : an act or instance of burning
2 : a usually rapid chemical process (as oxidation) that produces heat and usually light; also : a slower oxidation (as in the body)
3 : violent agitation : tumult

Taken fromhttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jplhistory/voyage/index.php

"The nuclear-powered landers carried instruments for meteorology, seismology, magnetic studies and imaging. They also carried a set of biological experiments intended to detect life. The life detection experiments were the most popular aspect of the Vikings and the most controversial. The results were ambiguous. JPL's director, Bruce Murray, believed that the experiments had shown the surface was so oxidizing that it was self-sterilizing, meaning nothing could grow there. A minority of Murray's colleagues disagreed. No further life-oriented experiments have reached Mars as of 2006, so this controversy is unresolved."

Also the Viking probes weren't launched until 1975. 

[E25280]

Probably there has not been life on Mars ever but certainly for 500 billion years at least.

And here I thought our solar system was only 4.5 billion years old and the universe only about 17.  Thanks for clearing that up for me.

[sntslilhlpr6601]

Only because there is nothing organic there at all. Take off a spacesuit on Mars and its instant combustion. It turns out NASA and JPL didnt have to worry about their vehicles contaminating the environment of Mars because Mars is capable of sterilizing anything that comes into contact with it... at least on the surface. I doubt there is life there at all but if there is it is very deep within the crust and I doubt even that is possible.

I believe it is. Many caves on Earth have microbial forms of life. It is thought that this is where life held on during rough times in our planets history (well, in the sea too, but that's neither here nor there). There is obviously evidence of water erosion on the surface of Mars, I don't think its much of a stretch to suggest that there are caves, and there may well be life there holding out, waiting for better surface conditions, just like what happened here on Earth.

Mars' core may be dead, but it takes a long time for something as big as a planet to completely cool down. There may still be liquid water under there. We just gotta go there and dig.

And don't forget that there are forms of life that can remain dormant, not dead, for eons. Bring it into a friendly environment and it wakes back up.

As you can see I'm pretty optimistic when it comes to this subject.  

[Chalenge]

Okay sorry I was speaking about Mariners 6 and 7 and subsequent visits by Viking.

No there has never been water on the surface of Mars. I dont know where you got that except in fanciful pre-mission predictments.

From "Journey into Space" by Bruce Murray Chapter 3 Pg 73:

Vikings GCMS results proved those speculations (superoxidized materials might be accumulating everywhere at the top of the soil) insightful. Whenever organic material is delivered to the soil of Mars - for example by the impact of an organic-rich meteorite - it is rapidly burned (that is oxidized) by the reactive Martian soil. Thus it is converted to carbon dioxide gas and then blends indistinguishably into the regular atmosphere of Mars. The mineral grains or vapors responsible for this process are then quickly recharged back to their superoxidized state by more ultraviolet radiation.
  Mars atmosphere is therefore self-sterilizing to a degree totally unexpected before Viking. For this reason the absence of organic compounds in the Viking tests is a strong indication of the absence of life over all of that desolate planets surface. Organic material - that is carbon based compounds - simply cannot survive in the Martian soil. Neither microbes nor their organic chemical traces are chemically stable there. Viking gave us more definitive answers than anyone had anticipated. Mars very probably has been lifeless for at least the last several billion years.

E25280 - according to what I have read a few billion years would just get us to the point where stars can begin to form... but who is counting? 200 billion or 3 billion is all the same when you live only about 100 years.

[grizz441]