HW #5

1. Briefly summarize the evidence from little over a century ago, both real and imagined that led to widespread belief in a Martian civilization.
   1. It was theorized that the surface of mars had canals that spanned the entire planet; someone even mapped the theorized canals from the polar ice caps interconnecting across the surface.
   2. Mars was approximately the same size as Earth and had about the same day length making people believe it was similar enough to host life as well.

 

1. Summarize the scientific pros and cons of sending humans to Mars. What other considerations are likely to play a role in decisions about such missions?
   1. Cons:
      1.  It is very dangerous!
      2. It would cost a lot more because we would have to provide life support vehicles as well as food and water and other things humans need to survive.
      3. For what we are looking for and the technology we have (if we were to compare cost to the benefit) it is much more efficient and safer to send robots to Mars for exploration right now.
   2. Pros:
      1. To infinity and beyond! It would be the greatest feat in human history going farther and exploring things we have never before.
      2. We could legitimately explore and experiment with Mars habitation and colonization.
      3. If life were to ever need to leave Earth we could have a tested plan for Mars.
      4. It would be easier to bring back and study Martian rocks if we were sending a manned mission.
          

3. Could Triton be habitable? Briefly discuss the possibility of finding habitable moons around Uranus or Neptune.
1. Yes. Although we as humans and astrobiologists have an understanding of what it takes to host and have life, we still cannot say with certainty that there is no life that can inhabit a moon like Triton. It might look completely foreign compared to life as we know it with different metabolite mechanisms and alternate sources of energy, but we cannot say it cannot happen.  So yes it could. If life were similar to ours it would have to be subsurface life closer to the hotter cores of the planet, and would most likely not be complex life forms but simple single celled organisms.
2. It is again a possibility life would have to be either quite different from how we know it here on Earth, or it would have to be insulated and protected by some feature of the moons. Again subsurface life would be most likely because of the intense low temperatures. I would said the possibility is there but the probability is low.