Mars 1's 2018 Lander

[EyeKhan]

If you're not familiar with it, Mars 1 is the private 1-way Mars colonization project. They're sending a first lander in 2018 and they crowd sourced the potential science projects to ride along and the short list is the subject of the article below. For this discussion I noticed at least some of the proposed experiments are biological in nature. I'm wondering if there's any concern of contaminating the planet. Though the possibility is remote, the question of whether Mars has or had life is still open. If these guys contaminate the planet, it could make the question difficult/ maybe impossible to answer. And if native microorganisms do live there now, contamination might threaten the native ecology. I thought I read somewhere that US lander missions are kept sterile to keep this sort of thing from happening. Any thoughts?



Private Mars Colony Project Wants Help Choosing 2018 Lander Experiments



You can help choose one of the science payloads that a Mars colonization effort will launch toward the Red Planet in 2018.
The Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One has selected 10 finalists from dozens of proposed payloads submitted by university groups around the world. One of these experiments will be chosen to fly on Mars One's robotic lander mission in 2018 — and the public will pick the winner.


"These 10 final projects are unique and creative, and we are very happy with the payload proposals these teams have presented," Mars One co-founder and chief technical officer Arno Wielders said in a statement. "It would be highly interesting to see each and every one of these projects being launched to Mars. Now it is up to the public to decide which project they would like to have on Mars."


The 10 finalists are a diverse group. One of the experiments would use cyanobacteria to convert carbon dioxide from Mars' atmosphere into oxygen, while another would demonstrate the production of oxygen from water in the Red Planet's soil. Two of the proposed payloads would attempt to grow plants in self-contained greenhouses on Mars.


Voting will open early this month and run through Dec. 31, Mars One representatives said. You can find more information, including a complete list and description of all 10 finalists, here.


Mars One aims to land four people on the Red Planet in 2025 as the vanguard of a permanent colony. New crews would arrive every two years thereafter, building up the settlement. At the moment, there are no plans to bring any of these pioneers back home to Earth.
The 2018 mission will send a robotic lander and orbiter to Mars to demonstrate some of the technologies necessary for human settlement. Other unmanned missions in 2020 and 2022 will launch a scouting rover and lots of cargo to the Red Planet.


Mars One plans to pay for its ambitious activities primarily by staging a global media event around the entire effort, from astronaut selection through the colonists' time on the Red Planet. More than 200,000 people applied to be Mars One astronauts; about 700 candidates remain, and interviews will soon narrow this pool down further.

http://www.space.com/27901-mars-one-...adline+Feed%29

[Wraith]

I'm of the opinion that we should be dropping algae bombs on Mars, so contamination isn't a big issue to me. I want it to happen eventually.

[wiggin]

Chaloobs - indeed the US at least tries to sterilize landers on other planetary bodies prior to launch. However, they are not always perfect:

http://www.space.com/13783-nasa-msl-...rotection.html

That being said, it's not that likely that we'd confuse terrestrial microorganisms for martian ones.

Regardless, I sincerely doubt they'll even be able to sent a lander, let alone get a manned mission going. I believe their fundraising to date is less than $1 million; the amount needed to construct and send a lander is probably a couple hundred times that amount, and it's bloody unlikely they will get enough for that, let alone the many billions of dollars necessary to send a few people to Mars. Even with modestly decreased launch costs and a very austere mission (cramped and limited living quarters, limited rad protection, awful food and nonexistent medical facilities) we're talking about serious money here. The US spent on the order of $100 billion (of today's dollars) putting a handful of people on the Moon for a few days and a similar amount putting a handful of people in LEO on a continual basis. Even with improved technology and limited ambition, I don't see a Mars mission going off for much less; in fact, it's likely to be much more.

I loved reading Red Mars just like everyone else, but there are fundamental problems with that vision that simply fail to understand the absolutely colossal cost of space travel. Absent some really revolutionary improvements in materials, propulsion, and automation, getting to Mars and setting up a colony there will be absurdly expensive.

[Steely Glint]

That which wiggin said. That, any anyone they send to live on Mars will probably be dead within months.

[EyeKhan]

That being said, it's not that likely that we'd confuse terrestrial microorganisms for martian ones.

This is almost certainly true, I agree, though it's an open question since there isn't enough data available. It would be a huge discovery to find microorganisms on Mars that are very similar to those on Earth with all sorts of implications blah blah blah. It would be a shame to render the question unanswerable...

And I agree on all counts about the colonization, too. Some fundamental change will have to happen here before it can happen - culturally or technologically.

@DW -- I'm on board with you too, though I think only after a reasonable search for Martian natives first. Throwing a big variety of organisms at all different parts of the planet and seeing what happens would be a really cool experiment all by itself.