No Life on Mars (Probably)
When NASA launched its Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover in 2011, one of the main goals of its 98-week mission was to determine the red planet’s “habitability.” Last month, the journal Science published a paper that reported the life on Mars is highly unlikely. This is because the rover has yet to find evidence of methane gas. The news was a big disappointment to many because the European Space Agency (ESA) Mars Express satellite seemed to have detected methane in 2003, though scientists admitted that more data was needed.
Why Methane?
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS; The Curiosity rover has discovered much about Mars, but has not found any evidence of past life.
While there are many ways to prove the existence of life, methane gas is the simplest hydrocarbon and considered the “biomarker” among scientists to determining life. Methane is a colorless, flammable gas created by bacteria during the decay of organic matter. More than 90% of the methane on Earth is produced by living things. It is found in the digestive tract of animals and in large quantities in our landfills. The test determining the existence of methane, however, is a very complex measurement.
Among the Curiosity rover’s ten instruments is a tuneable laser spectrometer. This takes in air from the atmosphere and a team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena analyzes the components. Even though Mars was thought to have dried up about 3.5 billion years ago, scientists were hopeful that microbes could still exist on the planet’s harsh surface.
What’s Next?
The president of the Mars Society said that the search for life on red planet is just in its beginning phases. Lack of data does not always mean concrete proof. Each new space exploration is more advanced that the one before. Of the 39 different missions to Mars, 24 of them have failed. The Indian Space agency will launch its own mission later this year and in 2016 the ESA will launch the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.
Imagining Living in Mars
While the dream of real life on the red planet may be fading, our science-fiction fantasy of interacting with Martians is not likely to dim any time soon. Books and films are filled with exotic voyages to and explorations of our neighboring planet, or defending our own from hostile alien invaders.
There are tons of stories set on or about Mars that date back to the late 1800s. Among the most popular is War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. This ia a frightening account of an attack on England by Martians who are set on destroying the Earth. It was later adapted into a radio play by Orson Wells that some people mistook for a real news emergency. In 1950 Ray Bradbury published the Martian Chronicles where humans and Martians interact with devastating results. The Angry Red Planet (1959) is a low-budget sci-fi classic that warns its audience of the dangers of Mars.
Modern movies include the virtual reality mindbender Total Recall (1990 and a remake in 2012), Red Planet and Mission to Mars (both in 2000) where astronauts face catastrophic circumstances on their explorations. Martian life isn’t always depicted as serious. Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953), Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! (1996) and Mars Needs Moms (2011) all add a healthy dose of humor to our fascination with alien lifeforms.