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Originally Posted by GarzaUK  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. |
That kinda boils down to "what's worth going to mars for"?
Sure given these resources colonization would be a higher probability but there needs to be a strong motive.
The original explorers that came to the "new world" came because of the desire to find a path to the far east that was not controlled by the Portuguese or Venetians. What is the strong motive to go to mars? Practically unless there is some resource or some scientific significance there's just simply not going to be any push to cross over 10 light minutes to get there. Hence why I don't really see this as any sort of major surprise.