do you think there is life on it or is it just a rock? or do you believe one of the many other theories

I don't think there's life on Mars, but I think that There's other life somewhere.

It's probably just a rock, like most other planets with water on them, or without water at that.

drag00n365 : Mars is a dead planet. Earth has plate tectonics, an atmosphere, water in its 3 states, among other characteristics. Mars has none of those things. It is possible that at one time there could have been life, but now, it's probably got nothing. My professor told me this. He's a geologist.

I don't think life on mars is even possible. The conditions just aren't right at all. Mars is basically just a dead rock. Maybe its possible that there is bacteria life of bug life but nothing more than that.

I personally do not think that there is any life on Mars, but I do think that somewhere out in the very vast Universe there is another worl capable of or already sustaining life on it. I don't beleive that this small hunk of Space rock is the only living thing in the almost infite Universe...Because if it was proven that this is the only thing that sustains life, I would probably randomly go into a state of depression or something.

I believe it's possible that there's life on Mars, but I think it would most likely be some type of bacteria with extreme abilities to adapt.

NotJon : That's why your professor is probably wrong. He's a geologist, not a biologist. He wouldn't know too much about the survivability of most life. Never doubt the ability of a micro-organism to survive. There are microbes that are surviving in extreme cold, extreme heat and extreme dryness. As long as there is some form of liquid and the right mineral nearby, there will always be microbes alive. I can almost guarantee that with extensive research deep under the soil of Mars there is evidence of life.

I don't know much about geology or biology yet, but I do believe, like pretty much most other planets, that life used to exist there, but something happened, which wiped them all out. Perhaps there is life somewhere else......

Cyro Xero : You forget though, you are basing this on the micro-organisms of Earth. However, there was always something occurring that allowed the little guys to survive. Mars has absolutely nothing to offer right now for life. No atmosphere, no heat, no internal activity, no liquid water; it is dead. Plate tectonics, atmosphere, 3 states of water, etc. were fundamental to life on this planet. He did not say that there is no life on Mars, he said that it would not be worth it to find out for sure and send astronauts there and try to make it work. Instead, he says that we should work harder to care for our planet.

Don't doubt my professor. His forte is geology, but, he's not too shabby in other fields either. Different fields often overlap each other in areas of study so just claiming that he doesn't know about it just because his focus is geology is ignorant.

Since you know so much about Mars, what happens if we find life? How does this help us? If there is life there, they obviously are able to live in extreme conditions that we ourselves would not be able to. You have to look at the big picture.

could there be, or have been life on mars. Yes.

But I have to agree with NotJon.... so what? Why do we think that finding little bacterias from another planet is a good thing? And the money it is going to cost to find out is insane. I don't know what Nasa's budget is per year but I bet if we stopped spending most of it we could either spend it in a better way or stop taking it from hard working Americans.

Yes there is life on mars here is proof:

thank you for that extraordinarily intelligent response. That settles it.... with that stupid picture Jigsaw has proved that life is on Mars.

I sure wish I had been clever enough to ruin a serious thread with a picture like that.

NASA hasn't been getting nearly as much as they should have, if you ask me. We would be able to easily afford putting more cash into it if the government didn't spend it on stupid s*** all the time. And now they are practically cutting it all together.



NASA's budget history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Budget




By the way, what was that picture from? If it's referencing something, it would help if you explain it.

it's Total Recall.... a movie where humans have made it to Mars and have set up a colony there and such... well, that's not what the movie is about... but that is where it's set. As far as I'm concerned it added no value to this thread since we're still wasting our time talking about it.

As for your post lagslayer.... I do agree that we waste a lot of money on other things.... but what has space exploration done for the average person in the US or the world?

I agree with Cyro Xero. Although there isn't visabilly any lifeforms on Mars, there could be micro-organisms existing deep in the soil, where there may be in fact water and minerals.

I believe there probably were, and may still be microbial forms of life on mars, but I think the more important question for us concerning mars, is what good is it to us? Would it be possible to terraform mars? With advances is science I wouldn't think to fast before dismissing this. That way dude's head won't explode when he goes outside.

fightorace : If we find out there is actually micro-organisms that can sustain life on Mars, then it proves that most likely there is extra-terrestrial life (and, technically, those organisms would be the first "E.T.")

the_casualty : yea, but microbes big hoopla. I wanna see some intelligent E.T. stuff, a pet to do my calculus or somethin cool to show for the encounter.

NotJon : What happens if we find life on Mars? The only thing that would happen- we would study it. Explore what it is, what it's made of, what conditions it lives in, how long it can live, among a list of other things.

How would it help us? It would give us solid proof that Earth isn't the only planet to harbor life. That's what the "big picture" is in this area of study- to find out if there is/was life on a planet other than Earth. That's what the goal is. We can't expect a couple of rovers to find evidence if life existed or not. To discover what we're looking for we need human explorers on Mars. Whether or not we find life there, to the human race, or at least those interested, it is more than worth sending people to Mars. A fossil is all we really need at this point. And I already mentioned in my last post that microbes would be able to survive in extreme conditions. I never said it, but I wasn't referring to just Earth. But there are plenty of conditions on Earth that micro-organisms survive in that match heavenly bodies in the Solar System. It's reason enough to search them. It's why scientists do and why they check "dead" planets anyway.

JigSaw : lulz.