You know what still bugs me. The 2012 Summer Olympics were like 15 billion... and people complained that Curiosity cost around 2.5ish Billion to build and send to another planet! The fact the we (the people of Earth as a whole) will gladly pay so, so, so much for the Olympics that only last a couple weeks., yet comparatively so little on space exploration irks me. Especially when its something like the rovers that last for years.
You have to remember a few things here though. It's not like the 15 billion or the 2.5 billion vanish after these projects. The 15 billion used for the summer Olympics is money that is invested in loads of businesses across the UK. Infrastructure improved and a lot of hotels and restaurants saw their profits increase. It impacts a lot of people and entertains even more. So it's not very weird that so many people enjoyed having the Olympics even if a total of 15 billion was spent. Now the Curiosity rover may have cost only a sixth of that (I really haven't checked the numbers so I'll take your word for it), but the 2.5 billion is not invested in very many businesses. It goes to salaries and some materials, but none of the local hotels or restaurants are profiting from it in any way. Also entertainment wise it pales in comparison to the Olympic games. Like you said the Olympic games are a couple of weeks of entertainment for people who like all different kinds of sports where the Curiosity rover only appeals to a small crowd of space fans. So while I agree with you that the amount of money that is spent on space exploration/development is way too low. It does make sense when you think about it. It has very little direct impact on peoples lives so people don't care. That's the sad truth. All you have to do is compare the subscriber numbers of this channel against some random lets play youtuber that screams while playing Minecraft. Maybe a lot more effort should be put into making space more fun. It's a difficult subject which might be overwhelming to a lot of people. But I bet you that if someone sends a rover to Mars or the moon and lets Twitch chat control it for an hour it would be a huge success.
Fraser Cain Politicians are at the mercy of what their constituents want. Most commonly the answer: "it's the economy, stupid". People seem to be willing to elect a flaming racist pumpkin with a sideorder of science denial if they believe they will have a stable job. Free-enterprise, once shown where the money is, will do space vastly cheaper and efficiently. And if there is still money to be made then free-enterprise sticks with it. You will never find miners who will collectively leave gold in the ground because they got bored with it. Where is the space money? Tourism will probably be the place to start. Tourism motivates cheap and safe access to space. Cheap access drives down the cost of lofting space stations. Asteroid mining will help to drive down the cost of tourism by reducing the cost of resupply. Closed loop life support reduces the need for frequent resupply. Science can hop in anytime to take advantage of the economics.
Thanks, welcome aboard. Did UA-cam recommend this video at you, or did you just go down the rabbit hole and get to this episode? Also, your channel is really cool too, you're almost at your silver play button.
I discovered now the channel, I present myself: I'm Ilic, I am 38, I am Italian and I have a PHD in PE and I worked in many places but mainly in sport field. I always have been fond of physics, space and science in general. Unluckily I haven't became an engineer but I have choosen another path following some stupid temporary impulses. Gosh I have already broken the eggs so no complaints; but I am deviating... shortly I am very happy to have found another interesting channel. Thank you, best regards
Willem van de Beek I am doing precisely that very slowly... there is a family and my time is their first. But I am not in rush, thanks for the suggestion.
The thing about our form of life is that it's made of the most reactive, abundant, and useful elements in the universe. Some people forget about that when they say we should be looking for other forms of life. Heck, if you compare the number of elements carbon can form compounds with when compared to silicon, the picture becomes quite clear. We're made of common materials arranged in complex forms. But common, nonetheless. So that's what we should look for.
hilarious how you spoke of methane and farts whilst keeping such a straight face. I bet that part took a few takes to complete! "Bacteria-naughts" is a great summary too.
I like the logic behind why we search Mars for life even though there are, possibly, better places to look (it's closer)... Reminds me of the joke about the guy who dropped a quarter on the ground a block away but is looking for it here because the light is better!
"A [...] study, published recently in Nature Communications, has discovered 17 species of animals living in water trapped in rock as deep as 1.4 kilometres underground in two South African gold mines. They include: A wide variety of worms - flatworms, roundworms, and ringed worms related to earthworms. Aquatic organisms called rotifers. A copepod, a tiny relative of shrimp. "(Animals found living in rock deep, deep underground CBS News 2015)
Fraser Cain Amazing isn't? This could imply that as long as we don't dig several kilometers deep holes into the Mars crust we can't rule out life exists there. ^_^
if there's is water on mars witch we know there is, but mars is cold to. is it possible to plant pine trees on the wettest parts of mars? pine trees are OK when it comes to cold weather and mars atmosphere is all carbon dioxide witch plants breath. we just need an impact container which would go and impact the wettest parts of Mars with the trees inside, then the container would open up exposing the pine trees to Mars's atmosphere. could it work?
no, for several reasons. 1st "ok with cold" doesn't work at -80°C (-110°F) 2nd the atmosphere is incredibly thin and therefore would damage any complex not-extremophile cell structure because the pressure isn't right for plants like trees. also they couldn't absorb the co2 because of the pressure. 3rd. "wet" on mars refers more to some slightly gooey permafrost-soil and nothing like a river or lake or wet soil. think of the vegetation on antarctic mountains. no pines there. 4th. mars has neighter a magnetospere nor an ionosphere to shield life from radiation. so even if the pines wouldn't just die right away (wich they would) they'd all get gross space-cancer. maybe there are some cute little algae or some sort of very robust lichen that could be kinda okay with the environment but i think that'll still take quite a while before we try and we'll have to convince (breed) them first and ofc. make sure they don't interfere with anything that might live there already.
No, they wouldn't be able to survive in that environment. There could be incredibly tough lichen that could survive, but even that's probably not possible.
Was there ever life on Mars? Possibly. Is there life on Mars now? Less likely. Is there life on Titan? Not like any we know and very difficult to prove.
That was my initial reaction too - woah, what? Hold up! www.astrobio.net/mars/potential-signs-ancient-life-mars-rover-photos/ "Although Noffke makes a tantalizing case for possible signs of ancient life on Mars, her report is not a definitive proof that these structures were shaped by biology. Getting such confirmation would involve returning rock samples to Earth and conducting additional microscopic analyses, a mission that isn’t scheduled anytime in the near future. “All I can say is, here’s my hypothesis and here’s all the evidence that I have,” Noffke says, “although I do think that this evidence is a lot.” So no, not definitive, but a distinct possibility...
I wonder, what are the practical limitations on the data rate between devices on other planets and the earth? Would it be possible to set up a lab bench with instruments and control the experiments using a virtual reality interface from earth? Essentially some setup where you take some images which give you parameters for the simulated version, you then do a few actions and these are then transmitted as instructions to mechanical parts that replicate them and then take some images again which update what you have in front of you? I do realise it would be necessary to stop for some time to send instructions and receive feedback on whether the actions were successful. Would that not be better than having mobile sample collectors and a more stationary analysis station? Would that not be the second best thing to having actual cosmonauts visit? (assuming the target is not behind the sun or some other body)
Regarding terraforming Mars, I have got an idea of how Mars can get a magnetic field. I know microwave ovens heat the materials from he inside out. We could create some sort of microwave oven effect around the planet, to heat up the core and the mental, but keep the crust cool. Indeed, a source of huge energy is available. This can be made on the Moon as well, since it has a small iron core. The Moon can not be terraformed as Mars, but a magnetosphere would be really handy to protect the stations we can build on there. I guess the only major turn of for this would be the source of energy. I would really love a video on this idea.
We don't know if heating up the inside of Mars would necessarily give it a magnetic dynamo. We are planning an episode on how we might be able to compensate for Mars' lack of magnetosphere.
My guess is that the lack of magnetosphere makes human habitation impossible. Our bodies are adapted to living inside the Earth magnetosphere. And, of course, without it, we can not get rid of the radiations from Mars. If there is a metallic core there, it should be able to ignite into a magnetosphere. If Mars had such thing in the past, this means it has a metallic core, most likely iron, that was hot, like on Earth today, then it cooled down, due to the small mass of the planet. So, for me, it makes sense that, if we are able to heat up Mars through microwaves on the core, the magnetosphere should be restored. This makes Mars much easier to terraform then Venus. There, slow rotation make the magnetosphere impossible, and probably it never existed there, due to the slow rotation.
can i ask a question? i heard about a galaxy that was made out of beer, i mean in chemical way.. so is there a posibility that there is a world that is made out of food, like a world of chocolate?
A couple of problems with panspermia. 1 - it pushes back abiogenisis. We can envision abiogenisis on Earth, improbable or not. Abiogenisis on Mars needs the same improbable event plus a much harder series of events - an asteroid strike, survival of the transit to Earth and then survival on arrival. 2 - IF we find life on Mars and it's conveniently similar to Earth life we could just as easily conclude that it is contamination from one or more of our probes. With our probes we have provided a lightening fast transit (8 months vs thousands to millions of years) and heat shields for microbes to survive behind. Here's hoping that Mars life is radically different from Earth life.
If the life is similar, but unrelated, that means it's almost certain there's life everywhere, since it appeared on two separate worlds. As you say, if it's related to us, it doesn't help answer the core question: is life common in the Universe?
Well mars is actually in a zone called habitalble zone where earth is in but mars in in the edge and stcking out a part of its planet outside it But it has sandstorms and thunders or could i say much more dangerous
I've just discovered your channel Fraser and I love it! Keep up the great work. :) Question: Could we somehow remotely terraform Mars before arriving there?
Could it have been possible for the impact from the formation of the moon to send large enough debris to wipe out life on Mars? Or would it not have sufficient acceleration to go out that far?
I think if there ever was life on Mars it originated independently from Earth's. As Carl Sagan put it, I believe life is what matter and energy do when given right conditions. And a long time ago Mars had the right conditions. And life is tough. If there ever was life there, it probably adapted to the new harsh conditions and it still exists somehow somewhere.
Questions I have concerning a comment in the vid about the meteorite that came from Mars. How do they know it came from Mars? Did they watch it leave Mars? And, if so, how did it just up and go thru space from the surface of Mars and point itself towards earth to get here? Just curious how they think or proved it came from Mars.
I asked this on your older black hole video, but I'm not sure if you even get notifications of comments on year+ older videos, but anyways do scientist have any idea if black holes grow in size or only in mass? Also, keep up the great work!
Hi Fraser, Thanks for your video. The question of life on Mars usually revolves around the existence of water. But life needs more than water. It needs an abundance of bio-matter. Amino acids, and proteins. Even if life no longer exists, there should be evidence of remaining bio-matter. Has any mars mission yet proven the existence of bio-matter? Additionally, if we ever wanted to colonize mars, wouldn't we need to bring all our own bio matter? or can we produce bio-matter from existing resources? I don't see how a colony could multiply beyond the available bio matter.
you had better hope life on Mars isn't related to my family... they're friggin' NUTS I think i'm the only sane one in the group... at least, my invisible friend says i am getting better, anyway
We refer to water and others as the main source of life to exist because we think that the other space creatures are simply like us. The other space creatures could need no water, oxygen, and others to live.
This kinda hypes me for the 2030s (if we leave out climate change) when we will explore mars in person. Maybe we will find evidence just like in the Netflix series Mars.
If there is bacterial life on Mars today does that create an ethical barrier to our colonization of the planet? And if so, does that create an insurmountable obstacle to our eventual colonization of the solar system and beyond?
It all depends on whether we think it's important to protect life on other worlds to preserve the science. If we do actually find life, this is going to be a hotly debated ethical dilemma.
Let's say sometime in the future when we are a space race we find “intelligent“ Aliens with about the technological progress we currently have. Should we help them to overcome their problems? Or should we leave them alone?
i hope we find out there was intelligent life, and its exticnt ant it was caused by irresponsibility industry, only way i think were gonna make it long enough to get out of solar system
Wait, so what you're telling me is that NASA built a super expensive satellite dedicated to figured out where Mars' methane is coming from? So basically NASA built a Martian fart smelling machine.
I don't think "are we alone in the universe" is the most important question. What about "when will Supernatural be good again?" But I get what you are saying :D
It's really unbelievable that it's been 48 years since the viking missions and not a single space agency has followed this up. "Is life on other planets?" is the most important scientific & philisophical question we can ask. And yet not a single space agency is willing to ask it. Instead we get endless of photos of rocks. I have tried to get details on the Viking experiments in the past. So many reports are inconsistent with conflicting descriptions of what the experiments were. The results are desribed as false positives, or inconclusive, or incorrectly designed experiments. But these reports don't back up or explain these conclusions with scientific explanations. It is very frustrating, as you want to be able to weigh up the scientific facts and make your own decision. It is a tragic missed oportunity that followup biological experiments have never been sent. Science discovery is all about iterative improvement & gathering more data. But these very promising first attempts have been abandoned and future iteration proposals have been rejected.
It's true, half of all missions to Mars have failed. And for spacecraft attempting to land on the surface, the atmosphere is too thin to rely solely on parachutes but too thick to only use retro-rockets to slow the descent.
It just hasn't been a priority for the kinds of scientific questions they've been asking. But Curiosity does have a microscopic imager on the end of its arm.
Let's say that we find life on Mars that uses left-handed chirality and whatnot... How do we prove life on earth came from mars and not the other way around?
Good point. Although, if it ends up being older than the moon, does that invalidate the hint? Wouldn't any evidence of life on earth have been destroyed during the moon's formation? I'd assume so, but maybe that's not the case... Could evidence of life have survived at the poles? I know (well, I assume) they'd have been damaged in the initial impact, but wouldn't most of the debris have come down at lower latitudes? Or would the impact have done so much damage to the entire surface that it doesn't matter?
yes, most likely, even though the spacecraft are incredibly well sterilized. xkcd has an article somewhere when the last bacteria abord the viking probes will have died and it will still take quite a while. there is definitely life on the moon though since the astronauts left their poop there in sealed bags. i think a few bacteria might still be alive in there eating away the corpses of their ancestors from the 60ies.
It annoys me that astrobiologists are looking at low-pressure solar bodies in search of life. More pressure = higher probability of successful (bio)chemical reactions afterall. It is far more likely life started on a high-pressure solar body; like for example the Uranian proto-planet before the collision that tilted its axis...
Willem van de Beek Lots of pressure on Venus. If ever there was life there it has long since been cooked. Jupiter, nothing solid to sit on. Had any abiogenisis occurred there it would certainly have been swept deep into crushing pressures and temperatures. Saturn, cold and no solid surface. Same with Uranus and Neptune. Any abiogenisis would immediately have to cope with extremely hostile environments. Mars could very well be sterile today but its watery past could easily have hosted life. Past life could leave fossils for us. A case could be made for a sample return mission.
Lenard Segnitz Neptune and Uranus both have ice and underneath that is liquid water. Uranus is also the only planet that doesn't radiate heat, so there must be some chemistry going on there; maybe even some biochemistry, since life is all about the storage of energy...
Fraser Cain So what is your gut feeling? Life detected on Mars? Or JWST detecting unambiguous signs in an exo-planet's atmosphere? I'm putting my money on JWST. Kepler gave us a trove of goldilocks planets. It shouldn't take JWST too long to survey those and sniff their atmospheres.
Eventually we will discover life and neatly pack it up for a return trip, but wouldn't that be extremely dangerous? After all common sense would say we would have no defenses against the alien biology.
But the alien biology wouldn't have evolved to attack us either, so most likely there's nothing it could do. However, it makes sense to not take any risks.
NOO I'M ASKING. YOU SHOULD BELIEVE IN JESUS BECAUSE HE'S THE GOD lmao I believe in Jesus because I'm a muslim but I hate these people that come up to you while you are walking down the streets and telling you to believe in Jesus like wtf is this? the 14th century
Why are the geniuses so concerned about past life? Why not just concentrate on turning Mars into a second Earth? What about just sending building materials, supplies, etc. for future human colonies there?
No, the Earth is not going to end in 2017, that's a hoax. Remember when everyone said the Earth was going to end in 2012... and it didn't? Also a hoax.
First we will buld apiramids oa mars the humans live on pyramides then dolevep their stringth and under stand atmospir defferents thees things do our oldest Egyptian old cultures that process to applying rebuild that mars is next earth human living planet on the univers
You know what still bugs me. The 2012 Summer Olympics were like 15 billion... and people complained that Curiosity cost around 2.5ish Billion to build and send to another planet! The fact the we (the people of Earth as a whole) will gladly pay so, so, so much for the Olympics that only last a couple weeks., yet comparatively so little on space exploration irks me. Especially when its something like the rovers that last for years.
You have to remember a few things here though. It's not like the 15 billion or the 2.5 billion vanish after these projects. The 15 billion used for the summer Olympics is money that is invested in loads of businesses across the UK. Infrastructure improved and a lot of hotels and restaurants saw their profits increase. It impacts a lot of people and entertains even more. So it's not very weird that so many people enjoyed having the Olympics even if a total of 15 billion was spent.
Now the Curiosity rover may have cost only a sixth of that (I really haven't checked the numbers so I'll take your word for it), but the 2.5 billion is not invested in very many businesses. It goes to salaries and some materials, but none of the local hotels or restaurants are profiting from it in any way. Also entertainment wise it pales in comparison to the Olympic games. Like you said the Olympic games are a couple of weeks of entertainment for people who like all different kinds of sports where the Curiosity rover only appeals to a small crowd of space fans.
So while I agree with you that the amount of money that is spent on space exploration/development is way too low. It does make sense when you think about it. It has very little direct impact on peoples lives so people don't care. That's the sad truth. All you have to do is compare the subscriber numbers of this channel against some random lets play youtuber that screams while playing Minecraft.
Maybe a lot more effort should be put into making space more fun. It's a difficult subject which might be overwhelming to a lot of people. But I bet you that if someone sends a rover to Mars or the moon and lets Twitch chat control it for an hour it would be a huge success.
That's why it's so important to vote, to bring in politicians that support the sciences.
Fraser Cain Politicians are at the mercy of what their constituents want. Most commonly the answer: "it's the economy, stupid". People seem to be willing to elect a flaming racist pumpkin with a sideorder of science denial if they believe they will have a stable job.
Free-enterprise, once shown where the money is, will do space vastly cheaper and efficiently. And if there is still money to be made then free-enterprise sticks with it. You will never find miners who will collectively leave gold in the ground because they got bored with it.
Where is the space money? Tourism will probably be the place to start. Tourism motivates cheap and safe access to space. Cheap access drives down the cost of lofting space stations. Asteroid mining will help to drive down the cost of tourism by reducing the cost of resupply. Closed loop life support reduces the need for frequent resupply. Science can hop in anytime to take advantage of the economics.
But it doesnt matter sinceits the congress not the president who vote the budgets and the congress is own by the lobbys & big compagnies.
maximus trajan Space X is funded by the NASA...
I'm really glad I stumbled across your channel today, awesome content man 👊
Thanks, welcome aboard. Did UA-cam recommend this video at you, or did you just go down the rabbit hole and get to this episode? Also, your channel is really cool too, you're almost at your silver play button.
I discovered now the channel, I present myself: I'm Ilic, I am 38, I am Italian and I have a PHD in PE and I worked in many places but mainly in sport field. I always have been fond of physics, space and science in general. Unluckily I haven't became an engineer but I have choosen another path following some stupid temporary impulses. Gosh I have already broken the eggs so no complaints; but I am deviating... shortly I am very happy to have found another interesting channel. Thank you, best regards
You can still study Astronomy and do a PhD at the Open University: www.open.ac.uk/courses/modules/s282
Willem van de Beek I am doing precisely that very slowly... there is a family and my time is their first. But I am not in rush, thanks for the suggestion.
The thing about our form of life is that it's made of the most reactive, abundant, and useful elements in the universe. Some people forget about that when they say we should be looking for other forms of life. Heck, if you compare the number of elements carbon can form compounds with when compared to silicon, the picture becomes quite clear.
We're made of common materials arranged in complex forms. But common, nonetheless. So that's what we should look for.
Thank you.
for the mind blow.
Never actually considered that point.
It's the place we should start, for sure.
Bose-Einstein - can we eat those silicon based lifeforms? I think not
Short answer: Maybe
Long answer: Maaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyybbbbbbbbbbbbeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
It's somewhere in between those two extremes.
you responded to my second comment :D
hilarious how you spoke of methane and farts whilst keeping such a straight face. I bet that part took a few takes to complete!
"Bacteria-naughts" is a great summary too.
I generated a few bloopers on that one.
Fraser Cain I bet you did haha. ty for responding
I like the logic behind why we search Mars for life even though there are, possibly, better places to look (it's closer)... Reminds me of the joke about the guy who dropped a quarter on the ground a block away but is looking for it here because the light is better!
For all we know all DNA looks similar throughout the galaxy and even universe. But its not related thats just how chemistry works
Chemistry might be able to find all kinds of different ways to the same result of life. We need more research.
Leaving out the "hang around for the blooper" is a very good idea I long had waited for :-)
Thanks for the feedback.
Insert David Bowie reference here
Aww. David Bowie. :-(
Mad Lad
Oh man, wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?
"A [...] study, published recently in Nature Communications, has discovered 17 species of animals living in water trapped in rock as deep as 1.4 kilometres underground in two South African gold mines. They include: A wide variety of worms - flatworms, roundworms, and ringed worms related to earthworms. Aquatic organisms called rotifers. A copepod, a tiny relative of shrimp. "(Animals found living in rock deep, deep underground CBS News 2015)
Life really does find a way.
Fraser Cain Amazing isn't? This could imply that as long as we don't dig several kilometers deep holes into the Mars crust we can't rule out life exists there. ^_^
Thank you for this very informative video!
Glad you enjoyed it, make sure you subscribe. :-)
Loving these longer vidoes. More, please!
Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying them.
if there's is water on mars witch we know there is, but mars is cold to. is it possible to plant pine trees on the wettest parts of mars? pine trees are OK when it comes to cold weather and mars atmosphere is all carbon dioxide witch plants breath. we just need an impact container which would go and impact the wettest parts of Mars with the trees inside, then the container would open up exposing the pine trees to Mars's atmosphere. could it work?
Lea Herbert. i dont think mars has enough of an atmosphere for that. also the lack of a magnetosphere to protect from radiation would be a problem
The soil is barren of nutrients too.
no, for several reasons. 1st "ok with cold" doesn't work at -80°C (-110°F) 2nd the atmosphere is incredibly thin and therefore would damage any complex not-extremophile cell structure because the pressure isn't right for plants like trees. also they couldn't absorb the co2 because of the pressure. 3rd. "wet" on mars refers more to some slightly gooey permafrost-soil and nothing like a river or lake or wet soil. think of the vegetation on antarctic mountains. no pines there. 4th. mars has neighter a magnetospere nor an ionosphere to shield life from radiation. so even if the pines wouldn't just die right away (wich they would) they'd all get gross space-cancer. maybe there are some cute little algae or some sort of very robust lichen that could be kinda okay with the environment but i think that'll still take quite a while before we try and we'll have to convince (breed) them first and ofc. make sure they don't interfere with anything that might live there already.
No, they wouldn't be able to survive in that environment. There could be incredibly tough lichen that could survive, but even that's probably not possible.
thanks guys, oh if mars has a thin atmosphere what is keeping the atmosphere there?
Very clear presentation, Thank you.
Was there ever life on Mars? Possibly. Is there life on Mars now? Less likely. Is there life on Titan? Not like any we know and very difficult to prove.
Spoken like a man who knows his stuff. : )
Thanks, now I don't need to watch the video. Fraser had this coming when he used a clickbait title
Brilliant series Fraser! Yes there MUST be some life on Mars, ever if only microbiological!
I really hope we do discover it.
you guys and gals make learning fun full stop. more please
Thanks! More coming...
Fascinating.
Thanks!
Fraser Cain You are welcome. (:
Is it conclusive that there was life on Mars once upon a time? Is the sedimentary rock bacteria explanation a plausible or a definite one?
That was my initial reaction too - woah, what? Hold up!
www.astrobio.net/mars/potential-signs-ancient-life-mars-rover-photos/
"Although Noffke makes a tantalizing case for possible signs of ancient life on Mars, her report is not a definitive proof that these structures were shaped by biology. Getting such confirmation would involve returning rock samples to Earth and conducting additional microscopic analyses, a mission that isn’t scheduled anytime in the near future.
“All I can say is, here’s my hypothesis and here’s all the evidence that I have,” Noffke says, “although I do think that this evidence is a lot.”
So no, not definitive, but a distinct possibility...
It's still inconclusive, but really interesting and needs further study. The 2020 Rover will be much better equipped to help figure this out.
I wonder, what are the practical limitations on the data rate between devices on other planets and the earth? Would it be possible to set up a lab bench with instruments and control the experiments using a virtual reality interface from earth? Essentially some setup where you take some images which give you parameters for the simulated version, you then do a few actions and these are then transmitted as instructions to mechanical parts that replicate them and then take some images again which update what you have in front of you? I do realise it would be necessary to stop for some time to send instructions and receive feedback on whether the actions were successful. Would that not be better than having mobile sample collectors and a more stationary analysis station? Would that not be the second best thing to having actual cosmonauts visit?
(assuming the target is not behind the sun or some other body)
You've just got that enormous time delay. It would make any kind of virtual interface infuriating to use.
Regarding terraforming Mars, I have got an idea of how Mars can get a magnetic field. I know microwave ovens heat the materials from he inside out. We could create some sort of microwave oven effect around the planet, to heat up the core and the mental, but keep the crust cool. Indeed, a source of huge energy is available. This can be made on the Moon as well, since it has a small iron core. The Moon can not be terraformed as Mars, but a magnetosphere would be really handy to protect the stations we can build on there. I guess the only major turn of for this would be the source of energy. I would really love a video on this idea.
We don't know if heating up the inside of Mars would necessarily give it a magnetic dynamo. We are planning an episode on how we might be able to compensate for Mars' lack of magnetosphere.
My guess is that the lack of magnetosphere makes human habitation impossible. Our bodies are adapted to living inside the Earth magnetosphere. And, of course, without it, we can not get rid of the radiations from Mars. If there is a metallic core there, it should be able to ignite into a magnetosphere. If Mars had such thing in the past, this means it has a metallic core, most likely iron, that was hot, like on Earth today, then it cooled down, due to the small mass of the planet. So, for me, it makes sense that, if we are able to heat up Mars through microwaves on the core, the magnetosphere should be restored. This makes Mars much easier to terraform then Venus. There, slow rotation make the magnetosphere impossible, and probably it never existed there, due to the slow rotation.
how many types of telescopes are there?
A few main types, but the two biggest categories are refractors (which use lenses) and reflectors (which use mirrors).
thanks
can i ask a question?
i heard about a galaxy that was made out of beer, i mean in chemical way.. so
is there a posibility that there is a world that is made out of food, like a world of chocolate?
No, its not made of "beer", its a nebula made of pure ethilic alchohool,
Astrobiologists fight in brutal cage matches? Man I must have missed it on pay per view.
excellent video
A couple of problems with panspermia.
1 - it pushes back abiogenisis. We can envision abiogenisis on Earth, improbable or not. Abiogenisis on Mars needs the same improbable event plus a much harder series of events - an asteroid strike, survival of the transit to Earth and then survival on arrival.
2 - IF we find life on Mars and it's conveniently similar to Earth life we could just as easily conclude that it is contamination from one or more of our probes. With our probes we have provided a lightening fast transit (8 months vs thousands to millions of years) and heat shields for microbes to survive behind.
Here's hoping that Mars life is radically different from Earth life.
If the life is similar, but unrelated, that means it's almost certain there's life everywhere, since it appeared on two separate worlds. As you say, if it's related to us, it doesn't help answer the core question: is life common in the Universe?
Well mars is actually in a zone called habitalble zone where earth is in but mars in in the edge and stcking out a part of its planet outside it
But it has sandstorms and thunders or could i say much more dangerous
It shows you how difficult it's going to be to know if other planets out there are habitable. Both Venus and Mars are in the habitable zone.
I've just discovered your channel Fraser and I love it! Keep up the great work. :) Question: Could we somehow remotely terraform Mars before arriving there?
Thanks a lot, welcome aboard. Terraforming is going to be hard and take a long long time. Like, thousands of years.
Cool; I had a feeling it was a very slim possibility... (think I'm watching just a touch too much sci fi...) :)
I hope they put better wheels on the next rover that goes to Mars. Oh ya and a microphone too, it would be cool to hear the wind from another planet.
You already can hear the wind on Mars.... ua-cam.com/video/3QCqnzMBPw4/v-deo.html
Could it have been possible for the impact from the formation of the moon to send large enough debris to wipe out life on Mars? Or would it not have sufficient acceleration to go out that far?
I think if there ever was life on Mars it originated independently from Earth's. As Carl Sagan put it, I believe life is what matter and energy do when given right conditions. And a long time ago Mars had the right conditions. And life is tough. If there ever was life there, it probably adapted to the new harsh conditions and it still exists somehow somewhere.
Jorge Gulias Merelle
Jorge Gulias Merelle
Questions I have concerning a comment in the vid about the meteorite that came from Mars.
How do they know it came from Mars?
Did they watch it leave Mars?
And, if so, how did it just up and go thru space from the surface of Mars and point itself towards earth to get here?
Just curious how they think or proved it came from Mars.
I had not heard of the potential microbial mats, very interesting. Get a sample return mission there now! :-)
Yeah, we need lots of sample return missions.
I asked this on your older black hole video, but I'm not sure if you even get notifications of comments on year+ older videos, but anyways do scientist have any idea if black holes grow in size or only in mass?
Also, keep up the great work!
Black holes grow in mass, and as they grow, their event horizon grows larger. We don't know what size the actual singularity is.
Is there life on Mars? Yes. Robot life! Its the only planet that is known which is inhabited soley by robots!!
Don't forget about our hard working robots.
Let them have it.
Little Cripple curiosity wasn't completely sterile it brought life to mars so yes there was and maybe still be life but earth life not alien life
Little Cripple Venus was once inhabited by robots
Hi Fraser, Thanks for your video. The question of life on Mars usually revolves around the existence of water. But life needs more than water. It needs an abundance of bio-matter. Amino acids, and proteins. Even if life no longer exists, there should be evidence of remaining bio-matter. Has any mars mission yet proven the existence of bio-matter? Additionally, if we ever wanted to colonize mars, wouldn't we need to bring all our own bio matter? or can we produce bio-matter from existing resources? I don't see how a colony could multiply beyond the available bio matter.
always love your videos...please try making video on ISRO....it'll be interesting to know your thoughts on our(India's) space agency....
I'm a huge fan of what ISRO's been doing. 100% record on getting to Mars.
please make a video on it
what would happen if we were to send microorganisms to mars?
We covered this topic here: ua-cam.com/video/E5AeXm4I0l8/v-deo.html
you had better hope life on Mars isn't related to my family... they're friggin' NUTS
I think i'm the only sane one in the group... at least, my invisible friend says i am getting better, anyway
But if you knew they came from Mars, wouldn't that give you more insight into your family?
you have a point. it would explain a lot....
We refer to water and others as the main source of life to exist because we think that the other space creatures are simply like us. The other space creatures could need no water, oxygen, and others to live.
This kinda hypes me for the 2030s (if we leave out climate change) when we will explore mars in person. Maybe we will find evidence just like in the Netflix series Mars.
Yup, things are speeding up. It's getting pretty exciting.
i just hope that we find life in our Solar system while i still live.
That would be great, but we might never find life, we might be the only life in the Universe... which would be sad. :-(
NASA's low key intrested in mars for the oil.
If there is bacterial life on Mars today does that create an ethical barrier to our colonization of the planet? And if so, does that create an insurmountable obstacle to our eventual colonization of the solar system and beyond?
It all depends on whether we think it's important to protect life on other worlds to preserve the science. If we do actually find life, this is going to be a hotly debated ethical dilemma.
Maybe there is a plethora of life on Mars, but to see it, you have to go to the upside-down.
Joseph Homan Oh, I thought that was Australia.
What's the possibility that we find life on mars that was actually accidentally brought from one of our probes?
instead of waiting 26 months for mars to come close we could just blast our way there with project orion. It is fast and do-able with today technology
redstone craft guy it not safe health wise
Not if but when do "they" give all information free for the general public.
Let's say sometime in the future when we are a space race we find “intelligent“ Aliens with about the technological progress we currently have. Should we help them to overcome their problems? Or should we leave them alone?
Those sneaky squeakers are definitely Volcanic, possibly even atomic at times.
It just depends on what other chemicals they find together with them.
If they happen to discover Hydrogen mixed in with the methane then out will come the Marshmallows. I mean what else is there to do on Mars?
Gen yon bagay ki pou ede nou facil. Tout missile sa yo k grand puissant yo ap itilize . Voye moitie sou Mars . Pou la vie kapab recree la vie
SI surface Mars la cold ebien nou kapab gen chance pou nou jwenn lavie sou li
i hope we find out there was intelligent life, and its exticnt ant it was caused by irresponsibility industry, only way i think were gonna make it long enough to get out of solar system
Define life
Then you will find it
Until then
It will evade most
We'll know it when we see it.
I like the neologism "bacterialnauts"! If I google for it, I find only one single match: the text of this video!
Hah, there you go. :-)
David Bowie was the first to ask this question in 1971.
And we're still waiting for the answer.
Wait, so what you're telling me is that NASA built a super expensive satellite dedicated to figured out where Mars' methane is coming from? So basically NASA built a Martian fart smelling machine.
One of the most sensitive fart smellers ever created.
Joshua W actually it was made by the ESA not NASA
I don't think "are we alone in the universe" is the most important question. What about "when will Supernatural be good again?"
But I get what you are saying :D
We already know the answer to that question, but you're clearly not ready for the terrifying truth...
i think there is no life on mars but it could be life on mars
We won't know until we look.
There is, we are interested in them, they are not interested in us though, because we have nothing special about our lives.
It's really unbelievable that it's been 48 years since the viking missions and not a single space agency has followed this up. "Is life on other planets?" is the most important scientific & philisophical question we can ask. And yet not a single space agency is willing to ask it. Instead we get endless of photos of rocks.
I have tried to get details on the Viking experiments in the past. So many reports are inconsistent with conflicting descriptions of what the experiments were. The results are desribed as false positives, or inconclusive, or incorrectly designed experiments. But these reports don't back up or explain these conclusions with scientific explanations. It is very frustrating, as you want to be able to weigh up the scientific facts and make your own decision. It is a tragic missed oportunity that followup biological experiments have never been sent. Science discovery is all about iterative improvement & gathering more data. But these very promising first attempts have been abandoned and future iteration proposals have been rejected.
Why is it so difficult to get a microscope to Mars?
It's difficult to get to Mars, period. Especially landers and rovers.
Matthew Bartlett Why did you even bother to say that?
It's true, half of all missions to Mars have failed. And for spacecraft attempting to land on the surface, the atmosphere is too thin to rely solely on parachutes but too thick to only use retro-rockets to slow the descent.
Matthew Bartlett I know that. Give people some credit and you will see that a surprising number of them actually make sense.
It just hasn't been a priority for the kinds of scientific questions they've been asking. But Curiosity does have a microscopic imager on the end of its arm.
Let's say that we find life on Mars that uses left-handed chirality and whatnot... How do we prove life on earth came from mars and not the other way around?
If we can find evidence that the Mars life is older, than it gives us a hint life started there.
Good point. Although, if it ends up being older than the moon, does that invalidate the hint? Wouldn't any evidence of life on earth have been destroyed during the moon's formation? I'd assume so, but maybe that's not the case... Could evidence of life have survived at the poles? I know (well, I assume) they'd have been damaged in the initial impact, but wouldn't most of the debris have come down at lower latitudes? Or would the impact have done so much damage to the entire surface that it doesn't matter?
is there Earthling life on Mars, which got there via our robots?
yes, most likely, even though the spacecraft are incredibly well sterilized. xkcd has an article somewhere when the last bacteria abord the viking probes will have died and it will still take quite a while. there is definitely life on the moon though since the astronauts left their poop there in sealed bags. i think a few bacteria might still be alive in there eating away the corpses of their ancestors from the 60ies.
We probably took Earth life to Mars on our robots, but it would have had a tough time surviving on the surface with all that radiation.
left handed chirality supremacy and proud of it!
Aww, we have room in our biosphere for all kinds of chirality.
Conclusive.
TripedalTroductions
The worst kind of inconclusive
The best kind of conclusive.
It annoys me that astrobiologists are looking at low-pressure solar bodies in search of life. More pressure = higher probability of successful (bio)chemical reactions afterall.
It is far more likely life started on a high-pressure solar body; like for example the Uranian proto-planet before the collision that tilted its axis...
They're looking for anywhere with water. Mars is easier to get to, so they're starting there. Be patient. :-)
Willem van de Beek Lots of pressure on Venus. If ever there was life there it has long since been cooked.
Jupiter, nothing solid to sit on. Had any abiogenisis occurred there it would certainly have been swept deep into crushing pressures and temperatures.
Saturn, cold and no solid surface. Same with Uranus and Neptune. Any abiogenisis would immediately have to cope with extremely hostile environments.
Mars could very well be sterile today but its watery past could easily have hosted life. Past life could leave fossils for us. A case could be made for a sample return mission.
Lenard Segnitz Neptune and Uranus both have ice and underneath that is liquid water. Uranus is also the only planet that doesn't radiate heat, so there must be some chemistry going on there; maybe even some biochemistry, since life is all about the storage of energy...
Quit teasing me with this question until you have the answer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We're so close...
Fraser Cain So what is your gut feeling? Life detected on Mars? Or JWST detecting unambiguous signs in an exo-planet's atmosphere?
I'm putting my money on JWST. Kepler gave us a trove of goldilocks planets. It shouldn't take JWST too long to survey those and sniff their atmospheres.
#FraserCainIsTheHeroOfTheWorld
Aww, thanks. :-)
Eventually we will discover life and neatly pack it up for a return trip, but wouldn't that be extremely dangerous? After all common sense would say we would have no defenses against the alien biology.
But the alien biology wouldn't have evolved to attack us either, so most likely there's nothing it could do. However, it makes sense to not take any risks.
So we sent 3 rovers looking for water on mars and then we end up discovering liquid water in sand dunes via satellites not rovers.
The orbiters found current water, while the rovers are building up the scientific case that water was on Mars for a long time.
Jesus christ microbes, stop eating chipotle. Your fart lasts for 100 years....
Kangsta CoasT DO YOU BELIEVE IN JESUS????????
NOO I'M ASKING. YOU SHOULD BELIEVE IN JESUS BECAUSE HE'S THE GOD
lmao I believe in Jesus because I'm a muslim but I hate these people that come up to you while you are walking down the streets and telling you to believe in Jesus like wtf is this? the 14th century
That explains everything. Chipotle arrived on Mars billions of years ago.
Why are the geniuses so concerned about past life? Why not just concentrate on turning Mars into a second Earth? What about just sending building materials, supplies, etc. for future human colonies there?
You should get Louis CK to do one of the episodes. Lol.
I wonder if he's much of a space nerd.
I bet it will be unrelated
Either possibility would be amazing.
Did he say "if you farted on Mars"?
Mr trump wants to send man back to the moon..... onwards ands upwards stuff the moon...... hello mars.
userwl2850 Newt Moonbase Gingrich!
Let's hope he fulfills that promise.
No
Maybe?
is the earth going to end in 2017 but is the pophecy not true and the earth is not ending.this the only way to tack to you.
No, the Earth is not going to end in 2017, that's a hoax. Remember when everyone said the Earth was going to end in 2012... and it didn't? Also a hoax.
mars attack
Ack ack!
life does exist on Mars , and every other planet and moons :)
No, There's No Life on Mars.
Script_OX you never know Tbh. We've literally only scratched the surface of it.
I know.
How do you know? What do you think about the methane discovery?
i think hearing you say farts made me uncomfortable
i hate the word never, you should never say nev..
Never say never again.
Fraser Cain Never is a long time... especially near the end.
First we will buld apiramids oa mars the humans live on pyramides then dolevep their stringth and under stand atmospir defferents thees things do our oldest Egyptian old cultures that process to applying rebuild that mars is next earth human living planet on the univers