Life on Mars: A Useful Solution or a False Hope?

Whether life has existed, exists or has the potential to exist in the future, life on Mars is a topic of much debate and research in the scientific world. Scientists disagree on if Mars has/had/will have life. According to Lucianne Walkowicz, Mars should not be considered as a planet which can be used if Earth’s resources are finished. However, scientists like Penelope Boston disagree and think that there may be life on Mars. However, both agree that this life is unlikely to be life as we know it and is instead more likely to be life like bacteria or viruses.

While Walkowicz does say that it may be possible to live on Mars, this does not mean that this life would be necessarily luxurious like our life on Earth. She says that “compared to Earth, Mars is a pretty terrible place to live” because of many reasons. Although we may look at deserts on Mars and think they are comparable to Earth, as Earth also has deserts, this comparison is very difficult to make seen as in reality the whole of Mars is covered with these deserts. On the other hand, Penelope Boston takes a different stance on the topic: a more positive one. Although she by no means says that human life could exist on Mars in a comfortable way, she does say that she thinks it is highly likely that life exists on Mars. This can be seen when she says “the question as to whether there is life on Mars that is related to life on Earth has now been very muddied” implying that it is not clear if the life takes a similar form.

Although space exploration should be invested in, Walkowicz brings up a very important point: although it may be that there is life on a planet outside Earth and in fact highly likely, there is no guarantee that we can get to a planet which has the potential to harbour life like our Earth if we keep relying on a planet like Mars to save us. A concept which is not even discussed by Boston, it is vital for humans to protect Earth since without Earth having the ability to sustain life, we as human beings will not even be able to research new planets. Boston also brings up the important point that the life which currently exists on Mars is definitely not big (“if it’s big and obvious, we would’ve already found it”) so the next logical conclusion would be to think about why large life hasn’t formed there. Even if small life has formed there, which Boston says there is a 50% chance of, large life would have already developed if the conditions had been correct.

Walkowicz advises humans against simply taking the fact that there is a high probability of the existence of life on Mars and thinking that there is therefore safety in the situation of humans and that humans can always migrate to Mars. The fact that large life has not evolved there, and the fact that we are still uncertain if there is any life shows that, since Mars is the age of our Earth, the conditions were probably not right for the formation of life. Walkowicz leaves us with a very important question as to why we may have not found any life yet: because as soon as “ civilizations become technologically advanced enough to consider living amongst the stars, they lose sight of how important it is to safeguard the worlds that fostered that advancement to begin with.” This quote shows us the fate which may happen to us and that we should remember to not treat Mars as a backup which will be there if Earth can no longer sustain life but to instead preserve Earth and continue preserving it. While we can still search for other habitable planets, this must be done with care so as to not convince people and give them hopes that human life can exist when no life has been found yet, or no life of significant size.

In conclusion, although both speakers agree that there should be research done into life in space, it is important to consider the Earth and the fact that it is unlikely that, if we continue going as we are now, we may eventually not have enough resources to sustain life on Earth nor to facilitate exploration into space. Additionally, although many planets may sustain life, there is a difference between human life and bacterial life, although the media often portrays these as the same thing, or as one indicating the other. Although there is an association, there are very specific conditions which are required in order for human life to be able to exist. I would really like to know more about life on Mars and would love to hear about the latest research and know about the size of life on Mars, but, more importantly, on planets which are even more likely to harbour life.

Bibliography:

Walkowicz, L. (2015). Transcript of "Let's not use Mars as a backup planet". TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/lucianne_walkowicz_let_s_not_use_mars_as_a_backup_planet/transcript.

Boston, P. (2006). Transcript of "There might just be life on Mars". TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/penelope_boston_there_might_just_be_life_on_mars/transcript.