| Speculative biology is simultaneously a science and form of art in which one speculates on the possibilities of life and evolution. What could the world look like if dinosaurs had never gone extinct? What could alien lifeforms look like? What kinds of plants and animals might exist in the far future? These questions and more are tackled by speculative biologists, and the Speculative Evolution welcomes all relevant ideas, inquiries, and world-building projects alike. With a member base comprising users from across the world, our community is the largest and longest-running place of gathering for speculative biologists on the web. While unregistered users are able to browse the forum on a basic level, registering an account provides additional forum access not visible to guests as well as the ability to join in discussions and contribute yourself! Registration is free and instantaneous. Join our community today! |
| Seeding Mars; planting Earth life on Mars (accidently) | |
|---|---|
| Topic Started: Jan 29 2010, 04:43 AM (1,267 Views) | |
| Toad of Spades | Jan 29 2010, 04:43 AM Post #1 |
![]()
Clorothod
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
If somehow during the process of sterilizing a rover to be sent to Mars too search for life, either someone got lazy and didn't do the process correctly, or a particularly hardy kind of bacteria hitched a ride after the cleaning, a few Earth bacterium got stuck inside or on it. It was then arrived on Mars and dislodged itself then made its way under ground. Ironically, the rover wasn't looking deep enough and there were Martian microbes several thousand feet below ground. However the bacteria adapted to the underground condition and alot of action was undergoing. Chaotic ecological disturbances were underway culminating in them feeding on the same resources competing with each other evenly. Then, after a while, the Terran and Martian microbes incredibly, coexisted in harmony. Then several hundred years later, with no means to go as deep to find either kind of these life forms, scientists announced that there was little possibility that there was extant life forms on Mars. Then a few thousand years later, mankind tried to convert the planet into a second earth by making the planet warmer, and somehow adding more mass to the planet, kickstarting plate tectonics, internal processes, as well as adding water. After a period of time, the planet ended up like that of a Precambrian Earth. The planet would be uninhabitable for a few billion years, and even then, surviving that long would bring advancements that would render living on a planet useless for terraforming. The project was a disastrous failure. They left the planet as is, expecting it to remain a life-less stagnant pool. After around a few hundred million years, mankind was forced to leave the solar system to adapt to life in space and to contact other intelligent life. Feeling sentiment for their homeworld and its life, they replenished the Sun's reserves in order to extend its lifespan and heated the core a bit more to keep the mantle from hardening, in the hope that more intelligent life would be produced, and they left life on Earth to continue to evolve without them. Ignored, the lifeforms on Mars eventually migrated to the surface. 2 billion years later, something remarkable happened. Symbiosis had created a microbe with features of both that eventually derived enough that it resembled something totally unlike either anscestor. When a cataclysm wiped out the primitive anscestors, the derived microbe survived and its descendants flourished. They underwent a process similar to Earth adapting to a planet that eventually had an environment with oxygen and was a double Earth. Complex life started and various types of complex life emerged, even "animal"-like forms. Than after 3 billion years, mankinds' super-advanced descendants returned to show their many newfound space buddies their planet of origin. They returned to a major surprise, their solar system had two Earths! They could only tell which was Mars and which was Earth by their orbit. However this was only from a distance. Getting closer and sending probes, the planets had similar appearing and functioning biospheres with markedly different life forms. At the microscopic level, they are very different as well. Scientists were puzzled as to where the life on Mars came from. They merely assumed that life arose from their long lost project and that over time it went under similar processes like how life on Earth appeared, or somehow life was expelled from a meteorite from Earth. Little did they know, that life was there all along, from both planets. What do you think of this? Also how likely do you think it is for hardy Earth bacteria to adapt to underground life on Mars, as well as coexisting with the life already on Mars? Edited by Toad of Spades, Jan 29 2010, 04:52 AM.
|
|
Sorry Link, I don't give credit. Come back when you're a little...MMMMMM...Richer. Bread is an animal and humans are %90 aluminum. | |
![]() |
|
| Replies: | |
|---|---|
| Holben | Jan 30 2010, 06:28 AM Post #16 |
![]()
Rumbo a la Victoria
![]()
|
There will be life even if WWIII destroys half the world. If it was covered in asteroids, wouldn't they release their life-giving cocktails and begin a new era of lifedom? Perhapos vacuum energy could come in handy for your future mass-giving. |
|
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea. "It is the old wound my king. It has never healed." | |
![]() |
|
| Ddraig Goch | Jan 30 2010, 04:42 PM Post #17 |
|
Ar hyd y nos
![]()
|
I understand that, but it won't be all the "nice" life - all that'll be left are single-celled organisms. |
| Save the Blibbering Humdinger from extinction! | |
![]() |
|
| T.Neo | Jan 30 2010, 05:13 PM Post #18 |
![]()
Translunar injection: TLI
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I doubt that. It'll be cockroaches, rats and pidgeons. Still not the "nice" life though. |
| A hard mathematical figure provides a sort of enlightenment to one's understanding of an idea that is never matched by mere guesswork. | |
![]() |
|
| Vultur-10 | Jan 30 2010, 06:47 PM Post #19 |
![]()
|
You don't need to increase Mars's mass to terraform it. It could hold a thick atmosphere at least on a reasonable time scale. It might bleed away eventually (tens or hundreds of millions of years later!) but presumably if you could add the atmosphere in the first place you could replenish it eventually... if you still cared geological ages later and hadn't all evolved yourselves into transcendent information beings or something. Presumably vaporising the south polar cap would help somewhat, thickening the CO2 atmosphere and adding some water vapor (which is also a powerful greenhouse gas). It might be a good first step anyway... Edited by Vultur-10, Jan 30 2010, 06:48 PM.
|
![]() |
|
| Canis Lupis | Jan 30 2010, 08:37 PM Post #20 |
![]()
Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.
![]()
|
Ironically, global warming would be helpful on Mars. If we were doing to Mars what we are doing to Earth, Al Gore would be pleading with everyone to keep doing it. And "Avatar" might be completely different. Interesting scenario though, Toad. Not very likely (least how you set it up) but still interesting. All you really need for Mars is an artificial magnetosphere and an atmosphere (the latter of which is quite simple). If you can do that, Mars will be perfect. |
![]() |
|
| Ànraich | Jan 31 2010, 03:03 PM Post #21 |
![]()
L'évolution Spéculative est moi
![]()
|
I once thought of a big ring built around Mars. It was connected to the surface at eight points by giant tower-like space elevators. Now then, at each pole of Mars was a giant tower, or antenna. This antenna had either a negative or positive charge, depending on which pole you were at. The ring would generate a magnetic field and would create a giant artificial one. The ring itself is powered by solar energy, the outer edge being covered in ultra-efficient solar panels. This had two adverse effects; on Earth the brightest thing in the night sky became Mars, due to the shine of the sun on the edge of the ring, and on Mars there was a "creeping night" effect as the ring cast a shadow onto Mars and it crept up or down the surface, depending on the season. The ring also stabilizes the orbit of Mars, giving it a regular day and summer/winter. I don't know the plausibility of such an idea, but I think the idea is at least a step in the right direction. |
|
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar. "The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming Tree That Owns Itself
| |
![]() |
|
| Ddraig Goch | Jan 31 2010, 03:39 PM Post #22 |
|
Ar hyd y nos
![]()
|
If that was built, it would be interesting to see what any sentient races which evolve on Mars would make of it. |
| Save the Blibbering Humdinger from extinction! | |
![]() |
|
| Holben | Jan 31 2010, 03:49 PM Post #23 |
![]()
Rumbo a la Victoria
![]()
|
'god put it there'. The ring would be very massive, the moons could collide with it, and a magnetic field that mighty would interact with the iron on the surface. |
|
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea. "It is the old wound my king. It has never healed." | |
![]() |
|
| Ànraich | Jan 31 2010, 06:08 PM Post #24 |
![]()
L'évolution Spéculative est moi
![]()
|
I don't think so. Earth's magnetic field doesn't effect our metal on the surface, and considering Mars is smaller and farther from the sun than Earth, it would need a field weaker than Earth's. And the moons would probably be removed; even used as material for the ring. They're not necessary, they don't do anything. |
|
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar. "The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming Tree That Owns Itself
| |
![]() |
|
| Empyreon | Feb 1 2010, 05:49 PM Post #25 |
|
Are you plausible?
![]()
|
I've heard that having a large moon helps stabilize an orbit with the parent planet. The martian moons are pretty small, though, so they may not have that much influence on the planet's orbital perturbations. |
|
Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus! COM Contributions food for thought
| |
![]() |
|
| Vultur-10 | Feb 1 2010, 07:35 PM Post #26 |
![]()
|
Why do you need a magnetosphere? Our magnetic field goes to zero every 600,000 years or so (not sure of the exact timescale) as it switches directions, and stuff doesn't die then. The Earth's atmosphere blocks radiation, not the magnetic field. (Some charged particles are deflected by the magnetic field, but AFAIK it's not that significant.) |
![]() |
|
| Vultur-10 | Feb 1 2010, 07:46 PM Post #27 |
![]()
|
I doubt a 'mere' nuclear war would do that. Chernobyl's full of wildlife. A nuclear war would probably cause *some* extinctions, of vulnerable species, but I doubt it would compare to what we've done already. Sadly, the benefit to wildlife of fewer humans would probably more than make up for the harm from radiation - mostly that does birth defects and cancer; most wild animals don't live long enough to get cancer, and there are always more born than can survive. ("Nuclear winter" effects are probably bogus from explosions as small -relatively- as nukes; it takes a really colossal supervolcano like Toba for even a mild one.) A small supervolcano has the explosive power of an entire nuclear war or more. (Even Mt Tambora was supposedly 1 gigaton or thereabouts, but not sure how reliable that is - 100 big nukes, more likely several hundred as technology has gone to smaller more refined weapons. Tambora doesn't really compare to a real supervolcano like Toba, and volcanoes probably throw up more ash etc. than nukes, so bigger climatic effects.) Chicxulub impactor was ~100 teratons, equivalent of tens of millions of nuclear weapons, and it didn't wipe out multicellular life - even though there were other stresses on life at the time (like the Deccan Traps eruption). Of course, Chicxulub wasn't radioactive. |
![]() |
|
| T.Neo | Feb 2 2010, 08:23 AM Post #28 |
![]()
Translunar injection: TLI
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Well, to a tribal society, planet-shaping space travellers essentially are gods. I don't know about that ring idea. Anything that big would probably fall apart due to tidal forces alone. Mars needs more then "global warming" to terraform it. Warming the climate, especially the poles, might however be the first step in Martian terraforming. I've heard widely varying estimates of atmospheric retention. Perhaps self-sustaining machines that replenish the atmosphere? And since we can stir up the sun in this story, why not at least heat the planetary interior. Project DESTINI anyone?
|
| A hard mathematical figure provides a sort of enlightenment to one's understanding of an idea that is never matched by mere guesswork. | |
![]() |
|
| Ànraich | Feb 3 2010, 06:07 PM Post #29 |
![]()
L'évolution Spéculative est moi
![]()
|
Yes, but the reason Mars today is dead is precisely because it lacks a magnetosphere. With nothing deflecting the charged particles, they passed hit the planet, and passed through its atmosphere. In doing so they knock little bits of the atmosphere away, until it's like it is today; useless. No magnetosphere, no atmosphere. No atmosphere, no life. You want things to live on Mars? You have to give it a magnetosphere. As for the Maritain moons, Phobos and Deimos are too tiny to have any significant effect on Mars' rotation. It tumbles in its orbit, and doesn't have a stable rotation. |
|
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar. "The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming Tree That Owns Itself
| |
![]() |
|
| Empyreon | Feb 3 2010, 08:46 PM Post #30 |
|
Are you plausible?
![]()
|
Isn't photodissociation also a factor, or is that basically the same thing? |
|
Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus! COM Contributions food for thought
| |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| Go to Next Page | |
| « Previous Topic · The Habitable Zone · Next Topic » |

















9:33 AM Jul 11