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REDSTAR CV&M – ResearchGate Ideas Exchange
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My Exchange of Ideas on manned spaceflight and life
on Mars with Patrice Poyet, a ResearchGate
companion.
My Question on ResearchGate was: “Has life on Mars never existed, is it past,
or is it still present?”
Patrice Poyet
On July 5th, 2017 Patrice to Frank
Hi Frank,
I've added a few thoughts to your question and I'm amazed that so few felt challenged
by it since last year!
Best regards,
Patrice.
Frank Veroustraete to Patrice on July 10th, 2017
Hi Patrice,
Yep, it seems that only a manned Mars mission seems to be of importance to NASA.
The scientific enigma's encountered, less so. That smells somewhat to the space
industry taking the initiative to swallow lots of taxpayers’ or filthy rich men/women
money, while science is of secondary importance and the budget for scientific research
accordingly.
What really sticks to the bones for example after the manned missions to the (Earth's)
Moon? The visits to the Moon were to say the least, scientifically not very shocking.
The leap forward was in the development of more space technology. I figger that a
manned Mars mission will most probably, elicit the same scenario.
John Logsdon, the Director of the Space Policy Institute at the George Washington
University puts it as follows in the Smithsonian Magazine during July 2008:
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"The main goal is sending people beyond earth's orbit starting with the moon,
eventually getting to Mars, and perhaps beyond. The moon is the first step since we
don't know how to survive a two years Mars mission yet.” The moon is a destination
of value in its own right, because there is lots we can do there that will help us learn
how to go to Mars. But this is not primarily about science, and therefore not primarily
about developing fundamental new knowledge in Astronomy. It is to test the belief
that humans are destined to live in other places in addition to earth. In order to do that,
they have to be able to live off the land and do something worthwhile. Exploration lets
us find out whether both of these are possible".
Steven Weinberg Winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics, Cosmologist and Prof. at
the University of Texas says. "Manned missions to space are incredibly expensive and
don't serve any important purpose. It isn't a good way of doing science, and funds are
being drained from the real science that NASA does. Sending people to space may be
a great show, so much so that what you do has to be built around the necessity of
keeping people safe and alive. Science takes second place. Above all, it's an incredible
waste of money. For the cost of putting a few people on a very limited set of locations
on Mars we could have dozens of unmanned, robotic missions roving all over Mars
and still have money left over to allow the astronomical sciences to go forward.
Unmanned missions have been tremendously important in making this a golden age of
astronomy.
Het states further: “Very often the case is made that putting people into space pushes
technology and that's good for technology on Earth. I think that's nonsense. The kind
of technological stimulus we would get from unmanned space exploration is much
greater. It would involve developing robotics and computer programs that could deal
with decisions to be made off–line and in real-time without human interaction at all.”
That's the sort of thing that's tremendously useful on earth (Unfortunately also for the
military. As always!).
The only thing one can learn by developing technology to put people into space, is
how to let humans survive in space or planets or moons very close to Earth". All the
experiments I know of in this regards, failed! And till now they did not take place in
space, not even close,... to Earth!
Read more? http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/debating-manned-moon-
missions-104905/#XPE08WOmHixO23Rz.99
REDSTAR CV&M – ResearchGate Ideas Exchange
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Patrice Poyet to you on March 17th, 2021
Hi Frank,
I'm reading again your answer after nearly four years and I find a lot of interesting
points in it. Especially further to the Covid man-made disaster. What's the relationship
with Mars. Never, ever, should NASA bring back samples to Earth from Mars, as they
could be contaminated with micro-something (bacteria, viruses, killer proteins, else)
that we do not even know and that could prove extraordinarily dreadful for mankind.
This though is not new and Carl Sagan was one of those, who said very early that
bringing death home does not make sense. Even if the risk is very small, would it
materialize, it could bout out of proportions with respect to the expected rewards.
My two morning cents, i hope and wish you well,
Patrice
Patrice Poyet to you on March 17th, 2021
Sorry for the typos, typing too fast :-)
Best.
Frank Veroustraete on March 17th, 2021
Hi Patrice,
Just last week I saw an SF film exactly on the topic you touch. In that film protozoan
life was discovered on Mars and brought to the ISS. There it escaped from a confined
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environment. It killed all life on the ISS and even worse a female astronaut could
escape with a bailout system direction Earth and splashed in the Indian ocean near
Java. Fishermen came to her help and when they opened the space cabin, they saw a
corpse which was completely infected. Horrible, because that was the end of humanity
on Earth as well. Worse than a Covid-19 pandemic so to say. If humanity disappears it
will not be due to a meteorite (causing the extinction of many of the dinosaur species),
but it will be due to human ignorance and stupidity.
Cheers, keep healthy and not infected.
Frank
Patrice Poyet to you on March 17th, 2021
Hi Frank,
Thanks for this very insightful answer and how funny that you just watched that SF
movie. This is especially worrying as that kind of SF movie always stands way behind
future reality, as the famous Jules Verne did :-)
In case you would like to sign the petition that opposes any return sample from Mars
to Earth, you can find it here:
http://www.icamsr.org/petition.html
Some more here:
https://edition.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/11/07/mars.sample/
Best wishes and stay safe as well,
Kind regards,
Patrice