Should we seed Mars with fungi and bacteria we think can survive on Mars?

[Ritual]

I was reading this http://www.capitolcolumn.com/news/martian-life-discovered-national-academy-of-sciences-suggest-microbes-could-survive/ and thought,  why don't we spread out some cultures of these fungi and bacteria on Mars and see how they fare? 

In a few thousand years,  we could maybe even actually start seeing them evolve in ways they are not on Earth.  In a million years maybe more advanced life forms start to emerge from these first few cultures we sent up on our Mars missions.

What possible negative could it have to spread life far and wide wherever we can?  Sure those life forms we introduce could "wipe out" what life is there.  But I think its looking like there is no life there anyways.

The same for the moon.  I think on our next Moon mission we should start spreading out bacteria to see if any of them thrive.  Because just like the bacteria and fungi in the article above,  we think we know what bacteria and fungi would have the best chance of survival on the moon.

Anyone agree with me?  Or do you have some kind of astrobiology ethical problem with it?  Besides the obvious of creating some kind of Pandora strain (which is ridiculous if it's our only reason for not undertaking these "seed" type expeditions).

 

[DMeader]

Good God, no. Silly idea.

[grakenverb]

Bones:  But dear Lord, do you think we're intelligent enough to- Suppose, what if this thing were used where life already exists?

Spock: It would destroy such life in favor of it's new matrix.

Bones: It's new - Do you have any idea what you're saying?

Spock: I was not attempting to evaluate its moral complications, Doctor. As a matter of cosmic history , it has always been easier to destroy than to create.

Bones: Not anymore!  Now we can do both at the same time! According to myth the earth was created in six days. Now watch out: here comes Genesis; we'll do it for you in six minutes!

Spock: Really, Doctor McCoy, you must learn to govern your passions. they will be your undoing.

[JohnFornaro]

Totally appropriate interchange there, between Spock and McKoy.

[QuantumG]

Good God, no. Silly idea.

Wow, what a well thought out retort.. can you explain your reasoning for him?

[Jorge]

Good God, no. Silly idea.

Wow, what a well thought out retort.. can you explain your reasoning for him?

Can't speak for DMeader, but I'd have thought it would be obvious that the biggest flaw in the original post was:

But I think its looking like there is no life there anyways.

I'll give you a chance to spot the flaw yourself rather than point out the obvious.

[DMeader]

Ok, since I have to spell it out...

We have explored perhaps 0.0000000000001% of the surface of Mars. Only two landers back in the mid-seventies (google "Viking") were equipped to test for the presence of life, and even there the results were ambiguous. Now granted there are not herds of bison roaming amongst the volcanoes on Tharsis, and I don't expect Curiosity to turn over a rock and find ants, but still.... don't you suppose we should wait and look around more before we start (deliberately at least, I don't know how well all the equipment we and others have dropped there over the years was sterilized) contaminating what is probably a pristine environment with earthly life forms?

[gospacex]

I think we should thoroughly search for Martian life; but avoid overdoing it.

For example, after several decades of study of samples we may know that life existed on Mars long ago, but now there is no life on the surface or in the first 5 meters below it. We may have no idea whether life exists kilometers below surface.

If we will be ready to start building inhabited Mars bases, there should be a point where we stop worrying about contaminating Mars and just start building bases.

Explorers of the past took far greater risks than the remote risk that a Martian bacteria may turn out pathogenic for humans and kill a few dozen colonists. Explorers of the past frequently ran risks of dying in their expeditions well in excess of 50%.

[Ritual]

Thanks for your thoughftul replies dismissing my post *rolls eyes*

I think the benefits would far outweigh any negatives.

-An important trait that life is going to have to adapt to is radiation.  By seeding Mars we would be setting up these traits to be naturally selected in the organisms over time.  In an expedition in the future in 100, 1000 years we harvest these cultures and since we have advanced in Biotechnology we are able to take the genes of these bacteria and insert them into our astronauts (or breed astronauts with these traits).  Now we are better equipped for space exploration,  and are able to launch space colonies for longer periods of time.

-Would we rather hold out to the possibility that Mars is harvesting life 5000 feet below its surface?  Or would we rather start seeding Mars as soon as possible.  What if an asteroid wipes out Earth,  for all we can prove right now,  Earth is the only planet that has life.  So because we did not Seed Mars,  life in our solar system is gone now.  But if we had seeded Mars,  then life in our solar system would not go extinct with the destruction of just Earth.  Isn't life important enough to want to preserve it?  It's like building a doomsday seed bank.

-It would give NASA something to do.  Monitoring these colonies of bacteria.  It would be a source of information for Astrobiologists,  Microbiologists,  Biologists,  etc etc.  Its better then launching a petri dish into orbit which is what we do on the ISS,  etc.   I think our first step should be space colony's not of Humans,  but of Bacteria!  Much easier!  No space base is needed,  just drop and see if they multiply and find a niche in their new environment.

I cant think of a single negative besides baseless paranoia about pandora strains,  angering our Niburu overlords,  etc.  I could however list a million benefits. 

[MP99]

In 10, 20, 30 years there will have been huge advances in modifying bacteria to achieve some particular function.

Speaking of seeding Mars so that evolution can take effect over a million years (or even a hundred) is way too premature.

cheers, Martin

[notsorandom]

The challenge would be making organisms that can survive on Mars. They would have to be able to live in very cold, very dry conditions. There is also the UV radiation and low atmospheric pressure. We would need to find locations on Mars that were the most habitable and deposit life there. That would likely take a pretty advanced gardening rover. More advanced in some ways then me. I have been having a hard time getting some things to grow in my garden this year. And I don't live on Mars!

[Nathan]

Perhaps this should be set up as a poll.

I vote yes.

[go4mars]

In 10, 20, 30 years there will have been huge advances in modifying bacteria to achieve some particular function.

I don't expect that the state of Martian life will be reasonably well characterized for at least a century.  Even if we find some bugs making CH4 in the next decade or two.  During a century or so of characterization, I suspect that advances in genetic engineering could tailor benign and useful organisms rather than taking a hap-hazard approach.  A better decision could be made at that point. 

In short, "not yet".

I would rather see it done in a simulated Martian environment on Earth; it would be a lot cheaper and no one would get their knickers in a bunch over it.  But if you have the money to make it happen (governments wouldn't touch the idea I suspect), it would be interesting to see what grounds formal objections may arise on.  pun intended.

[cosmicvoid]

.... It's like building a doomsday seed bank....

As a pie-in-the-sky idea, it might be cool to put a "seed bank" on Mars. Not just plant seed, but a full genetic repository of Earth life forms. It would be sealed, so as not to interact with the Martian environment under normal situations, being opened only in the extreme case of needing to re-seed Earth life.

It would be the ultimate "off-site backup".

[savuporo]

why don't we spread out some cultures of these fungi and bacteria on Mars and see how they fare? 

A more relevant question would be "why would we" ? To what end ?

I mean that as a serious question. Clearly, there would be an ultimate goal behind it, or would you just do it as "lets just do it, get some popcorn and see what happens?"