Comments on: Where Would Martian Life Hang Out? Under a Giant Volcano, Naturally http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/03/05/where-would-martian-life-hang-out-under-a-giant-volcano-naturally/ 80beats is DISCOVER's news aggregator, weaving together the choicest tidbits from the best articles covering the day\'s most compelling topics. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:31:36 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Uncle Al http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/03/05/where-would-martian-life-hang-out-under-a-giant-volcano-naturally/comment-page-1/#comment-19786 Uncle Al Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:57:05 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/03/05/where-would-martian-life-hang-out-under-a-giant-volcano-naturally/#comment-19786 If Olympus Mons is internally warm, look at its surface in the infrared or microwave, at night in winter. If Mars' methane is biogenic not primordial there will be a carbon isotope shift. Deep water will show substantial deuterium depletion compared to atmospheric vapor subject to aeons of photolysis and light hydrogen escape. All this capability has already visited. Why didn't somebody look? "Science" is doing everything possible <I>not</I> to answer the question. That would be the subset called "politics". Sending a $750 million laboratory to Mars that could not load its sample bins - or draw any conclusions when it did - was process not product. The Space Scuttle is process not product (25 ton safety-downrated payload but a 120 ton parasitic vehicle). ISS FUBAR is process not product. Buncha political crap. The only ISS FUBAR experiment worth a farthing would have been first thing to boost a colony of wild field mice in July 2000. ISS FUBAR could have bred 33 generations of mice to date, birth to delivery generation time of 13 weeks. We would know whether mammals can evolve to living weightless - and what changes are important. Mars is a zero. Its only allure is that equipment can be landed and pursue process. Venus won't cooperate. The gas giants and their moons receivein sufficient sunlight to power trash repackagers. If Olympus Mons is internally warm, look at its surface in the infrared or microwave, at night in winter. If Mars’ methane is biogenic not primordial there will be a carbon isotope shift. Deep water will show substantial deuterium depletion compared to atmospheric vapor subject to aeons of photolysis and light hydrogen escape. All this capability has already visited. Why didn’t somebody look?

“Science” is doing everything possible not to answer the question. That would be the subset called “politics”. Sending a $750 million laboratory to Mars that could not load its sample bins – or draw any conclusions when it did – was process not product. The Space Scuttle is process not product (25 ton safety-downrated payload but a 120 ton parasitic vehicle). ISS FUBAR is process not product. Buncha political crap.

The only ISS FUBAR experiment worth a farthing would have been first thing to boost a colony of wild field mice in July 2000. ISS FUBAR could have bred 33 generations of mice to date, birth to delivery generation time of 13 weeks. We would know whether mammals can evolve to living weightless – and what changes are important.

Mars is a zero. Its only allure is that equipment can be landed and pursue process. Venus won’t cooperate. The gas giants and their moons receivein sufficient sunlight to power trash repackagers.

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