Was There Ever Life on Mars?
@owlwings (43910)
Cambridge, England
February 21, 2021 3:45am CST
I am very surprised that there has not been one mention here of NASA's incredible mission to land a rover called Perseverance on Mars. Sure, they have done it before several times, so what could go wrong?
Well, first of all, it is by far the largest and most complex vehicle to be landed successfully on our distant neighbour planet. Second, the landing site chosen was a very difficult area with only a few small good, flat areas to choose from and, with about 22 minutes delay between sending a command and receiving confirmation that the command had been succesful, they were virtually flying blind, so landing such a large and delicate piece of equipment gently enough and in the right place first time was a truly amazing feat.
I stayed up quite late to watch the live broadcast. It had me on the edge of my seat and I really felt the exhileration and party atmosphere in the control rooms when everything went exactly as planned. To be honest, the broadcast seemed to have been aimed mostly at an audience of 9 and 10 year olds (who, by the time the rock samples the mission will collect are returned to Earth, will be the scientists who get to analyse them) and it felt just very slightly patronising.
If you didn't watch it, the link to the site is below. If you did, were you as gripped as I was?
Anyway, now that the mission is there and will shortly begin drilling the rocks and muds of a 3 billion year old lake bed and river delta, we can only wait to see what they might find.
It seems to me that, if life did not develop uniquely on Earth, it most likely arrived on a comet which crashed into our planet and a similar thing might have happened on Mars, which was then a world with water and an atmosphere very like ours is today.
What are your thoughts about the possibilities of life elsewhere in the Universe? Do you hope (or wish) that we are not unique or do you rather hope (or believe, perhaps ) that we are?
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/watch-online/
35 people like this
30 responses
@MALUSE (69373)
• Germany
21 Feb 21
I stayed awake when the landing on the moon was shown on TV and was rather excited together with the many other people who were watching. Since then, I haven't watched any other space adventures.
Yet, my life has been influenced by a space mission. When a German astronaut went to the USA to be trained for a space trip, his wife accompanied him. This woman used to teach Russian at a grammar school in our town. When she had left, I was transferred there to substitute her. She didn't come back but moved to another town with her husband after his return, and so I stayed at this school.
8 people like this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
21 Feb 21
It's surely a small feather in your hat that you have been remotely associated with the Space Program in that way!
I watched the moon landing, I think, but I don't remember whether I watched it live. I had a bad bout of flu at the time and we hired a television so that i could watch the moon landing and other things.
3 people like this
@Letranknight2015 (51938)
• Philippines
21 Feb 21
Did that german astronaut went into space? it's sad we never went back to the moon.
4 people like this
@MALUSE (69373)
• Germany
21 Feb 21
@Letranknight2015 Yes, he did. See here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Messerschmid
4 people like this
@crossbones27 (49401)
• Mojave, California
21 Feb 21
My sister and I watched it and I thought they already discovered life on Mars. Mars is scary to me, I am not sure we are going to like what we find. I think Earth is headed in the direction of Mars. I guess we have to but, I think people will flip out if that is what they find. They might have a good reason to lie to us for once but you can never fool a fooler. Yeah, made that up, meaning extinct, game over.
7 people like this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
21 Feb 21
They already know enough about Mars to make it worth looking for evidence of life there. We still cannot be sure that there ever was but it seems to be possible, at least. There will be hundreds of scientists working on the samples when they are brought back in 30 years time. I don't think that it would be possible to hide such information if they did find signs that there once was life there.
3 people like this
@BarBaraPrz (47256)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
21 Feb 21
People on Mars descended from cats and we moved to a warmer climate (Earth)...
5 people like this
@mysdianait (66009)
• Italy
21 Feb 21
I am totally unintereted in any of the space missions/projects. Why do we need to go anywhere else? To destroy there too? We have made a mess of our own planet Earth, sent loads of garbage into space and now we should interfere elsewhere too? No I don't think that's right at all..
I have always thought that the money spent to get into space and onto other planets should be spent here on Earth to better things - including a national health system for those who don't have one 
6 people like this
@stephcjh (38473)
• United States
22 Feb 21
I agree with everything you said. They are just wasting money elsewhere when it comes down to it and messing with things that may be better off if they were just left alone. I understand the study and curiosity too though but not for that cost.
5 people like this
@mysdianait (66009)
• Italy
22 Feb 21
@stephcjh Exactly how I feel about space research. It should be done after other things and not be a priority 
4 people like this
@WorDazza (15830)
• Manchester, England
21 Feb 21
Considering the size of the universe there is no way we are the only life. Who knows what that other life will look like though? Life on earth has developed within the physical parameters of the planet. Gravity in particular has probably played a huge part in shaping us physically.
Other planets with different gravity values may well host a totally different array of life forms maybe even life that isn't carbon based.
While I hold out hope we will discover evidence of basic life forms within my lifetime I seriously doubt we will ever find evidence of intelligent life. The universe is just too vast.
5 people like this
@erictsuma (9726)
• Mombasa, Kenya
21 Feb 21
Personally I believe people can also leave on Mars just like Earth .
Mars support Life
5 people like this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
21 Feb 21
It would be very difficult, though I know that some people are planning a colony on Mars. The atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide and very, very thin; there is no free water and it is extremely cold. Any humans would have to live in sealed units
Perhaps Mars might have been just about habitable hundreds or millions of years ago, before Mars lost most of its atmosphere and water but there were no humans on Earth then!
3 people like this
@marguicha (222756)
• Chile
21 Feb 21
I´m sure that we are not unique in some ways although we don´t know what kind of life there is elsewhere. I have enough fear at some beings here, like jellyfish for instance.
4 people like this
@eileenleyva (27560)
• Philippines
21 Feb 21
I did watch the news clips. My daughter was ultra excited because her name has arrived in Mars. 
It's wonderful to see that touch down, especially so that we have Filipinos on that design team.
Been proud of our locally educated engineers whose ingenuous designs have helped NASA in its journey in space.
Been proud since Eduardo San Juan designed the Lunar Rover.
It's wonderful to see that touch down, especially so that we have Filipinos on that design team.
Been proud of our locally educated engineers whose ingenuous designs have helped NASA in its journey in space.
Been proud since Eduardo San Juan designed the Lunar Rover.
https://www.thoughtco.com/eduardo-san-juan-and-moon-buggy-1991716#:~:text=Mechanical%20engineer%20Eduardo%20San%20Juan,of%20the%20Articulated%20Wheel%20System.
5 people like this
@much2say (55512)
• Los Angeles, California
21 Feb 21
I didn't get to watch it "live", but I had plenty of friends who did and made their posts about it on FB. Pretty exciting, right? Even more exciting would be to find that evidence of life . . . if that sort of news is made, you bet my eyes will be glued to future broadcasts. But I've often wondered how such news would affect people of certain beliefs . . . I had a friend in a particular religion who would tell me earth was absolutely the only planet created to hold life. I want to stay open minded about these things 
.
.4 people like this
@LeaPea2417 (37350)
• Toccoa, Georgia
21 Feb 21
I do not think there was ever any life on Mars.
5 people like this
@LadyDuck (471272)
• Switzerland
21 Feb 21
I have followed and with my husband we also calculated the approximate speed of Perseverance.
I have always thought that there is life elsewhere in the Universe. Not on the planets closed to earth that we know, but I am sure that we are not the only living creatures of the universe.
4 people like this
@wolfgirl569 (105819)
• Marion, Ohio
21 Feb 21
I think humans destroyed that planet first and then moved here. That is also why we are looking for other planets now as we know we are destroying this one too.
4 people like this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
21 Feb 21
Mars became uninhabitable about 2- 3 billion years ago. At that time, humans weren't even a twinkle in our Creator's eye, oxygen had only just begun to be produced (through photosynthesis) and the only life on this planet was single-celled. It would have been a rather hostile and pretty barren place for any human.
5 people like this
@wolfgirl569 (105819)
• Marion, Ohio
22 Feb 21
@owlwings They could have destroyed more than one planet in that time. We havent been here all that long and look at what has already been done.
4 people like this
@innertalks (21903)
• Australia
22 Feb 21
Humans is a term for those from the Earth, but perhaps you are right, we are not really humans at all.
We are all Martians.
Perhaps intelligent life was existing on Mars, being seeded there first, and then, it moved to the Earth, when Mars lost its hospitableness.
@RasmaSandra (79648)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
22 Feb 21
I think most likely there is another life somewhere in the Universe, Thank you for sharing,
5 people like this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
21 Feb 21
Our Earth is the only planet in our solar system on which humans can live but there are other planets on which it might just be possible for life in some form to survive. Mars was very like Earth many billions of years ago with water and an atmosphere, nearly all of which it has lost now, so it's just possible that life could have existed there in a very primitive form, just as it once did here.
The Universe is vast with countless billions of stars, some of which have planets round them and some of which planets may be quite similar to Earth with an atmosphere and water and with reasonable temperatures such as we know can sustain life here.
3 people like this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
22 Feb 21
@Janet357 That is only because the ancient people who first wrote the Bible didn't have the knowledge or science to comprehend that there could be other worlds round other stars. When you were a very small child, only your immediate family and then, later, your local village mattered to you and were comprehensible. As you grew up, though, you quickly learned about other towns and countries. It is important to understand the Bible in the context in which it was written and not to accept it as the whole truth.
2 people like this
@allknowing (135935)
• India
22 Feb 21
I must shamefully admit I did not watch the happening and now I will opening that link you have here. Thank you.
An Indian scientist seems to behind it and here is the link that talks about it
On February 18, the world couldn’t stop gushing over the successful landing of NASA’s Perseverance Rover on Mars. But this milestone would have been incomplete without Indian-American scientist, Dr Swati Mohan, the Guidance, Navigation, and Controls (GN&C)
3 people like this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
22 Feb 21
I was very impressed by Swati's presentation during the coverage. She is clearly a very talented and able member of the team. To say that she was "behind the NASA rover landing on Mars" is stretching it a bit, however, because that implies (in the English that I speak) that she originated the whole mission, which is not true. She is clearly a very valued and mportant member of the whole team and I'm quite sure that she would agree with that definition.
3 people like this
@allknowing (135935)
• India
22 Feb 21
@owlwings (lol) I too am wit you on this but who am I to oppose?
3 people like this
@RebeccasFarm (89832)
• Arvada, Colorado
11 Mar 21
I think anything is possible and we can theorize all day long.
3 people like this
@OreoBrownie (3755)
• Commerce, Georgia
16 Mar 21
I did not know anything about it. I don't watch the news. I just want you to on things I am interested in. I did not see this on YouTube or I would have watched it. Sorry I missed it. I believe there could have been Life on Mars at one time. One could never know what could have happened all those eons ago.
3 people like this
@Letranknight2015 (51938)
• Philippines
21 Feb 21
We are definitely NOT unique and there are others out there. I do think there was life on mars but it was billions of years ago. It would be a miracle to bring it back to life.
3 people like this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
21 Feb 21
I think that, if there was ever life on Mars, it is likely to have been very primitive - single celled and perhaps simple organisms like slimes and moulds. I don't think that we could expect it to have been any more advanced 3 billion years ago than it was on Earth.
2 people like this
@lazydaizee (6735)
• United Kingdom
22 Feb 21
I am not sure that we should be interfering on other planets especially when our own planet has many problems to be solved. I know this is exciting and we are going to learn a lot from it, but I think that the money spent on this could have been used for something more important on earth.
3 people like this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
22 Feb 21
I wonder about that, too, sometimes, but it's American money, not ours. There are things which our Government pays for which, in my opinion, might be better spent elsewhere.
I regard the NASA missions as free education/entertainment and I'm grateful to them for furthering our knowledge of space and the world we live in.
2 people like this
