| Re: Martian soil appears able to support life
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfuh  This bit isn't really much of a surprise - the surprise would be actually finding either indirect or direct evidence of life - perhaps ferrodoxins or Fe3O4 like they did with the martian antarctic rocks. Or fossilized remains of life.
The real biggie would be actually finding a living martian. 
Which given the ability of life on this planet to survive in the harshest of conditions I would gamble actually still exist - ie endospores. | To be fair it is a bit of a surprise and it is a big story in itself.
It means in theory, colonies can be self-sufficient. We have Ice there, that takes care of water, we have nutrients there that can grow earth plants and crops, therefore we can keep livestock there.
As the evidence piles up it seems that we are destined to be a two planet species after all, we seemed to be destined to colonise the Red Planet.
Which brings me to my next point...
What if we can heat the planet and melt the ice, should we allow Earth life to spread on Mars?
Or should we keep Earth life confined to special areas and see how Martian life evolves on its own? This is of course if Mars actually has amino acids of its own.
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