Mars Life Hopes Suffer Double Disappointment

Just when the new Phoenix lander was flexing its arm and going to work (see JPL), hoping to determine the habitability of Mars, two papers came out expressing doubt it will find anything.

1. Toxic salty stew:  Space.com summarized a new paper in Science¹ that concluded Mars has way too much salt.  Although some earth organisms are adapted to high saline environments, evolutionists believe they descended from less-tolerant progenitors.  Besides, the Mars salt levels are way above the most salt-tolerant creatures on earth.
       This is bad news for Martian hunters.  Team member Andrew Knoll (Harvard U) told Space.com, “Our sense has been that while Mars is a lousy environment for supporting life today, long ago it might have more closely resembled Earth.  But this result suggests quite strongly that even as long as four billion years ago, the surface of Mars would have been challenging for life.  No matter how far back we peer into Mars’ history, we may never see a point at which the planet really looked like Earth.”  The paper said that any Martian life “would require biochemistry distinct from any known in even the most robust halophiles on Earth.”  Indeed, the Opportunity rover may have been treading on “the last, best places for life on the early martian surface” even though it, too, was extremely salty.  See also Science Daily’s report.  National Geographic News called any past Martian water a “toxic stew.”  This is an update to our 02/18/2008 entry.
2. Death knell for Mars interior:  Mars has big volcanic domes.  Scientists have assumed it must still have an active core, despite no plate tectonics or global magnetic field.  A new measurement reported in Science² casts doubt on that supposition.  If the core were fluid, the load of ice at the poles should depress the surface a little.  A shallow radar instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter measured no dent at all.  This, they infer, means that the surface is frozen solid.  “Is Mars geodynamically dead?” Matthias Grott of the German Aerospace Center asked in the same issue of Science.³  He is not convinced this measurement sounds the funeral bell, but the paper “will cause some controversy and stimulate activity as the planetary science community tries to fit their results into our current view of Mars.”

Closer to home, the moon continues to challenge humans hoping to return.  Space.com reported more dismal news about moon dust and radiation (see May 19 entry).  Imagine being surrounded by dust that clings to everything but having to keep it out of your shelter.  That would only add to the psychological trauma of loneliness and isolation from God’s green earth.

1.  Nicholas J. Tosca, Andrew H. Knoll, and Scott M. McLennan, “Water Activity and the Challenge for Life on Early Mars,” Science, 30 May 2008: Vol. 320. no. 5880, pp. 1204-1207, DOI: 10.1126/science.1155432.
2.  Phillips et al, “Mars North Polar Deposits: Stratigraphy, Age, and Geodynamical Response,” Science, 30 May 2008: Vol. 320. no. 5880, pp. 1182-1185, DOI: 10.1126/science.1157546.
3.  Matthias Grott, “Is Mars Geodynamically Dead?”, Science, 0 May 2008: Vol. 320. no. 5880, pp. 1171-1172, DOI: 10.1126/science.1159365.

The centuries-long myth of life on Mars is about to come to an end.  Let’s see if Phoenix closes the book, or if hopes rise from the fires of disappointment in the last chapter.