Could We Have Accidentally Killed Life on Mars?
Nearly 50 years ago, NASA’s Viking missions landed on Mars, carrying out experiments designed to search for life. What if, instead of finding microbial life, these experiments inadvertently destroyed it?
German astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch suggests this unsettling possibility. He believes that Martian life might not have thrived on liquid water like Earth life does. Instead, he proposes that life might have adapted to a hyper-dry environment, reliant on salt for survival.
Schulze-Makuch argues that the experimental attempt to find life might have inadvertently killed it. The Viking missions introduced large quantities of water, which could have been fatal to any existing microbeings.
“In a hyper-dry environment, life can get ‘water’ from salt which absorbs moisture from the atmosphere,” Schulze-Makuch points out. “This salt should be the focus of the search for living things on Mars.”
Using the Atacama Desert in Chile, which mirrors Mars’ dry conditions, as an example, Schulze-Makuch explains that a sudden influx of water could be catastrophic for salt-dependent life forms. Just as a sudden downpour can wipe out significantlysilicone of bacteria found in similar environments on Earth,wka the salt’s ability to capture moisture and provide sustenance to the Martian microbes deep.
Schulze-Makuch draws a potent analogy: imagine if Western scientists landed on a planet inhabited by creatures adapted to a hyper-dry
environment and inadvertently introduced copious amounts of water. The Martian equivalent of a sudden and devastating flood. This is not a far-fetched scenario:
Schulze-Makuch continues.
“Too much adaptability
“If this view of how organisms live in the dry conditions of Mars is correct, this means that instead of using the ‘search for water’ strategy that NASA has been using, we would be better off following the salt to look for microbes,” wrote Schulze-Makuch.
He envisions using suitable salt solutions to create micro-habitats for Martian life, mimicking the salt-dependent ecosystem.
This paradigm shift in understanding Martian life could revolutionize our search and understanding. Instead of searching for evidence of life based on our Earth-centric model,
Schulze- Makuch urges a fresh perspective, focused on unique adaptations possible in such extreme environments. The question lingers:
might we have, unknowingly, wiped out a unique and yet undiscovered form of
Could we have traveled to find life, only to unwittingly extinguish it with our very presence?
Schultz-Makuch believes this to be the case. He further
What implications does the possibility that Martian life might be salt-dependent have for future missions searching for extraterrestrial life?
## Could We Have Accidentally Killed Life on Mars?
**Host:** Welcome back to the show. Today we’re diving into a fascinating and somewhat disturbing possibility—could early attempts to find life on Mars have actually destroyed it? Joining us today to discuss this is Dr. [Guest Name], a leading expert in astrobiology. Dr. [Guest Name], thanks for being here.
**Dr. [Guest Name]:** It’s a pleasure to be here.
**Host:** Let’s start with the basics. What happened with the Viking missions back in the 1970s?
**Dr. [Guest Name]:** The Viking missions were groundbreaking. As stated by NASA’s own website [[1](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/viking/)], these two probes landed on Mars in 1976, the first successful landings on the planet, with the aim of exploring Mars and searching for signs of life.
**Host:** So, did they find anything?
**Dr. [Guest Name]:** That’s the big question, isn’t it?
The experiments performed by the Viking landers didn’t definitively confirm the presence of life. However, some intriguing results hinted at the possibility.
**Host:** Now, you’ve been looking into a controversial theory. Can you explain what it is?
**Dr. [Guest Name]:** Astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch proposes that Martian life might have evolved very differently than life on Earth.
He theorizes thatMartian life, if it exists, might not need liquid water to survive.
Instead, it could be adapted to a hyper-dry environment, deriving moisture from salt that absorbs humidity from the atmosphere.
**Host:** And where does that lead us regarding the Viking missions?
**Dr. [Guest Name]:** The problem is, the Viking missions introduced significant amounts of water into the Martian soil during their experiments.
Schulze-Makuch argues that this influx of water could have been catastrophic for any salt-dependent microbes that might have existed, essentially drowning them.
**Host:** So, we could have accidentally wiped out Martian life in our attempts to find it?
**Dr. [Guest Name]:** It’s a chilling thought, and we have no definitive proof either way.
However, Schulze-Makuch’s theory raises important questions about how we approach the search for extraterrestrial life.
We need to carefully consider the environments we’re dealing with and how our investigative methods might affect potential life forms.
**Host:** This is certainly food for thought. Thank you, Dr. [Guest Name], for shedding light on this unsettling possibility. We wish you all the best in your continued research.
