NASA believes that the Phoenix Mars lander has found ice crystals in one of the trenches it dug. If true, and we then extrapolate backwards, could Mars have been as wet and verdant as Earth is today? If so, where are we heading next?
NASA believes that the Phoenix Mars lander has found ice crystals in one of the trenches it dug. If true, and we then extrapolate backwards, could Mars have been as wet and verdant as Earth is today? If so, where are we heading next?
Nothing. Even if Mars was once full of life with an ecosystem like ours (highly unlikely) it would teach us very little. There are so many variable is the equation of life that extrapolating from what is found on Mars and predicting what might happen on Earth is just guesswork and fanciful.
For example let us take one of the simpler differences: gravity. The Earth's gravity is 2.5 times as strong as Mars'. Therefore Earth is able to retain a completely different atmosphere under completely different conditions than Mars. There are a host of far more complex variables that make any Mars' ecological model so radically different that Earth's that it is pointless trying to draw any conclusions.
If people/scientists/whatever want to study desert like surroundings to make predictions then it is far better to head off to one of the deserts we have on this planet.
Written in June 2008
Submit a crazy green idea to be turned into the next X PRIZE in Energy ...
Doing so can save a lot of the energy needed for preparing the dish. Even ...
What is it like to eat only plant-based foods for a whole week? If you ...
Bulgaria, Bulgaria 
New Orleans, United States 
