NASA has foolishly pushed the “water=possibility of life” narrative for years now.
So all the Rover stories were filled with “follow the water” discoveries. Same with the Phoenix Lander, though the first few days produced photos showing the darn thing landed on a slab of white ice that retro rockets blew a few inches of dirt off of.
The real issue is not the “question of water” – 1st seen on Martian polar icecaps 450 years ago through telescopes. As a basis of saying Mars once was liveable, or “sustain life”, if man ever colonized the place.
It is “the question of nitrogen”.
Of nitrogen ever existing in sufficient quantity in ancient Martian eras to form the nitrogen-based amino acid precursors of life.
And for the future, nitrogen existing in sufficient extractable quantity to allow sustained human presence without having to bring tons and tons of nitrogen from Earth. (Nitrogen is a miniscule amount -3%- of a miniscule atmosphere thousands of times less abundant than Earth’s at sea level.
Rovers have found no sign of nitrogen in rock and soil samples. Nor have satellite assays.
Nor signs of critical heavy ore deposits of elements likely to be required to sustain future life of any sort brought from Earth – uranium for power against the low temps, ability to refine clean water, make O2. Lead for shielding against high radiation. Trace elements needed in life processes, Etc.
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Another “life impediment” is exactly how “salt-poisoned” the soils and waters of ancient Mars were in blocking life forms originating, and how bad they are on present Mars. Even if the nitrogen availability “veto” on life existing is shown false, the lack of heavier elements false, if the whole planet is salty like Dead Sea brine and adjacent soils, it cannot support life.
It has always been fashionable to be optimistic about life elsewhere in the solar system. The prevailing wisdome was once that Venus was a jungle and Mars the obvious home to an ancient civilization.
Now we have NASA hacks and others replacing Venus with “life is quite possible” Europa, comet cores, Jupiter cloud life, even Titan life.
We need to be more skeptical…just to avoid the “life on Mars proven to exist in Martian meteroid!” press conferences done by the likes of Clinton and those NASA and aerospace contractors eager for more funds from an “excited and optimistic public” – or the duped good Dubya declaring that a trillion dollar expedition as prelude to permanent human settlement of Mars, needs only to overcome money as the only obstacle.
