SPACE: Re: Economic Role for Manned Space Stations

Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Wed, 28 Jul 1999 08:43:27 -0700 (PDT)

From: "Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury@www.aeiveos.com>

>I'm sorry, but in 1969, it was generally accepted that life *did
>not* exist on Mars. It is *more* accepted today, by
>microbiologists, etc. that life (as bacteria) might still exist on
>Mars.

I side with atmospheric chemist James Lovelock on this. Mars has a chemical steady-state atmosphere, (and very little of that) and therefore it is unlikely that it supports life.

Earth as another example has a chemically very unstable-state atmosphere which Lovelock explains as being maintained by life on Earth. (The Gaia Hypothesis). So to find planets with life look for planets whose atmospheres are in a nonsteady-state.(chemically)

excellent posts by the way.

Brian
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