The Europa mission will not unambiguously answer that question. The key question is one genesis versus two and we can only really answer that in the “short” time on Mars. We can get to Mars and take the kit to answer that question.
Condition on both planets were “similar” for a significant period that on Earth, life took. Did it take on Mars? If yes, was it DNA, AT(U)GC based, how is it different and why did it loose?
Sorry I did not respond correctly to your reply.
Regarding the formation of the solar system, yes it may answer some questions but not unambiguously and is it even a key question right now. The Alpha Centauri system is so different that the current missions are naval gazing to a large extent… beyond maybe the Mars effort.
I understand that many of the current missions are legacy missions anchored to funding paths confined to well trodden options but can we push beyond that?
We need to go for the jugular, is there life beyond Earth?
Personally I believe our immediate efforts should focus on orbital or space energy generation. If that could be done simultaneously with exploration, great but if its a choice of one over the other then thats my choice.
I think there is room for both but do you think that the goal of fusion energy will fail? This does not have to be be in space and could solve the energy requirements on Earth. The issue will always be who gets there first and how readily they are to share - a problem that spaced based energy production will also face..
@tesh why not Venus?
Why Mars?
In any case once we set foot on a planet it could start life on it through contamination. #leavethem alone.
Am not convinced of Venus and we are unlikely to be easily explore it.
Mars is easier, not easy. The goal would be to understand if the bugs, because they will most likely be bugs, use the standard bases, codons and proteins or something completely different. Anything we bring along, we can test for as have the means to do so and it will be genetically traceable in terms of Earth like or not.
Something else, is another beast altogether!
The constant volcanic activity means the surface is relatively young, geologically speaking, and any evidence of past life before the oceans boiled away and the place became hell is likely erased. Even if any is there to be found, the atmospheric pressure alone is almost insurmountable. Add the extreme heat and probes would find it difficult to survive and a manned mission would realistically be a suicide one. There is a thought that the upper atmosphere could sustain a form of floating habitat but that’s science fiction right now. Mars is the far more viable option for human exploration as the atmospheric pressure and mean temperature makes it’s possible with the technology at our disposable. I still thinks that’s a dead end though as well. The planet is dead for a reason and I don’t think of it as a viable alternative for a large scale human migration. Research purposes, definitely. Colonisation, no.
I think we’ve had this conversation years back and if we’re looking for habitable worlds, I’d be looking at the fastest mode of getting probes beyond the solar system to relay back information, even if they are multi generational missions. In terms of billions of years down the line, Titan could very well become habitable with the increase of luminosity and temperature it will receive as the sun becomes a red giant. I suspect we will have long since returned to the dust as a species by then, though.
I’ll stick this on the RIP thread as well, but Apollo 13’s commander, Jim Lovell, has died:
Believing and knowing are two different things. The goal here would be to determine if life ever took and if it did and then died, then why?
In addition, if it did take, was it similar? These are key questions in terms of a life viable universe or otherwise.
Mars is the easiest and best way to get to some of these answers. If we find no evidence of life on Mars after a couple of decades of being there, then we will die alone.
I hope not, and i do think we’ll get it. The issue is that it is once again a huge industrial undertaking. And for me that ultimately belongs in space leaving the Earth to be restored and have us more in balance with it. But for us to advance we need energy, stupid amounts of it, even compared to now. Is that fusion? It plays a part because it can ultimately be more portable. Worth noting that some fusio reactor designs require trutium. That can only be found in a fission reactor.
But other methods are needed too I feel.
Only then does true space exploration, Mars colonies etc. become more feasible.
Venus is the most inhospitable place in our solar system. Extreme heat, surface pressure is enormous, crazy atmosphere that rains sulphuric acid. We have not been able to get a probe to last more than an hour (i think) on its surface and thats if you actually land. Some probes never got that far.
Venus probably just shades it over my missus when shes in a mood, ironic with venus being the god of love and all that
I would agree that our energy requirements are only going to increase and that fusion in and of itself is not the answer. Beyond vast space based solar energy, I cannot see us getting to the requirements. Even that will require opening up of a space based economy and a lot more geopolitical stability.