No, not now. Europa especially needs protection, also Mars, because there is a decent chance that there is life there already. If so, then we want to know what it's like and Earth life could easily become an invasive species for Europa or Mars, and cause extinction of lifeforms before we can study them and know what we lost.
Though much of Earth life wouldn't survive more than a few minutes on Mars, as you say, we have some extremophiles that would find e.g. Mars or Europa just their cup of tea.
Imagine how tragic it would be to find a totally new form of life on Mars or Europa just to discover that it is about to go extinct because of introduced Earth life? Or worse, to find remains of lifeforms that used to live there until just before our visit and became extinct before we could discover them?
Though likely to be just microbial life, you might think, unimportant - but we have a huge gap in our understanding. More than half of evolution happened before the "last common ancestor" of all Earth life - as measured by non redundant nucleotide complexity of the DNA.
All Earth life shares, not just same DNA, but also same method of transcribing it into RNA and then proteins, same error correction methods etc.
Immensely complex dance going on that's the same in all known Earth life.
So what if Mars or Europa life dances to a slightly different tune? Or is from an earlier stage of evolution, more primitive than any Earth life?
Or - similar to Earth life - basically DNA life - but different method for photosynthesis, or different metabolism, etc never explored by Earth life .
That's why we spend so much time protecting these planets and moons from Earth life. And some say that we have responsibility to protect them, not just until we get a chance to study them ourselves, but also for future generations who might have much more sensitive methods of exploring the planets, or might have other wishes for them from ourselves.
And Europa - especially - because of its oxygen rich ocean (due to ionizing radiation from Jupiter) - just possibly might have higher lifeforms - like our fish.
If these places turn out to be free of any current life - we still should step carefully.
Because - introducing life to a planet is irreversible. And we have no experience of it - and no way to predict how it might evolve, how it might change as it spreads over the planet and its various habitats. It might even prove hazardous to humans or frustrate our attempts to terraform the planet, if done at an early stage when we don't know much about what happens to life introduced to a planet.
So - well I think myself anyway - we should start by experimenting with large scale habitats rather than planets. It is also far easier to build a huge habitat, Stanford Torus style, suitable for 10,000 people, whatever climate you like including tropics - or simulate Mars if you prefer - and then try ideas for introducing life there.
That's a hugely expensive undertaking, true, of order of billions of dollars, but far far less expensive than terraforming. And far faster also, you could have that done within a few decades, while at its most optimistic, terraforming takes of the order of thousands of years (on Earth it took hundreds of millions of years).
So, before considering terraforming, I think we should look into large habitats first. Because you can do it more quickly, if things go wrong can reset and start again, is far more controlled, get much better data because everything is controlled. And more useful also.
While thinking through ideas for terraforming, and modeling it and all that - I think study of terraforming is good and useful.
But to actually do it - well we are nowhere near that capability yet. Maybe after we have shown we can continue as a stable technological civilization for a few millennia we can start considering technological projects like that which require millennia to complete and shouldn't be abandoned mid stream.
Either that or some dramatic jump in understanding. E.g. if we encountered ETs who already have experience of terraforming planets or some such, and can advise us of the things that can to wrong and how to avoid them, and ways to do it right.
Imagined Colours Of Future Mars - What Happens If We Treat A Planet As A Giant Petri Dish?
Though much of Earth life wouldn't survive more than a few minutes on Mars, as you say, we have some extremophiles that would find e.g. Mars or Europa just their cup of tea.
Imagine how tragic it would be to find a totally new form of life on Mars or Europa just to discover that it is about to go extinct because of introduced Earth life? Or worse, to find remains of lifeforms that used to live there until just before our visit and became extinct before we could discover them?
Though likely to be just microbial life, you might think, unimportant - but we have a huge gap in our understanding. More than half of evolution happened before the "last common ancestor" of all Earth life - as measured by non redundant nucleotide complexity of the DNA.
All Earth life shares, not just same DNA, but also same method of transcribing it into RNA and then proteins, same error correction methods etc.
Immensely complex dance going on that's the same in all known Earth life.
So what if Mars or Europa life dances to a slightly different tune? Or is from an earlier stage of evolution, more primitive than any Earth life?
Or - similar to Earth life - basically DNA life - but different method for photosynthesis, or different metabolism, etc never explored by Earth life .
That's why we spend so much time protecting these planets and moons from Earth life. And some say that we have responsibility to protect them, not just until we get a chance to study them ourselves, but also for future generations who might have much more sensitive methods of exploring the planets, or might have other wishes for them from ourselves.
And Europa - especially - because of its oxygen rich ocean (due to ionizing radiation from Jupiter) - just possibly might have higher lifeforms - like our fish.
If these places turn out to be free of any current life - we still should step carefully.
Because - introducing life to a planet is irreversible. And we have no experience of it - and no way to predict how it might evolve, how it might change as it spreads over the planet and its various habitats. It might even prove hazardous to humans or frustrate our attempts to terraform the planet, if done at an early stage when we don't know much about what happens to life introduced to a planet.
So - well I think myself anyway - we should start by experimenting with large scale habitats rather than planets. It is also far easier to build a huge habitat, Stanford Torus style, suitable for 10,000 people, whatever climate you like including tropics - or simulate Mars if you prefer - and then try ideas for introducing life there.
That's a hugely expensive undertaking, true, of order of billions of dollars, but far far less expensive than terraforming. And far faster also, you could have that done within a few decades, while at its most optimistic, terraforming takes of the order of thousands of years (on Earth it took hundreds of millions of years).
So, before considering terraforming, I think we should look into large habitats first. Because you can do it more quickly, if things go wrong can reset and start again, is far more controlled, get much better data because everything is controlled. And more useful also.
While thinking through ideas for terraforming, and modeling it and all that - I think study of terraforming is good and useful.
But to actually do it - well we are nowhere near that capability yet. Maybe after we have shown we can continue as a stable technological civilization for a few millennia we can start considering technological projects like that which require millennia to complete and shouldn't be abandoned mid stream.
Either that or some dramatic jump in understanding. E.g. if we encountered ETs who already have experience of terraforming planets or some such, and can advise us of the things that can to wrong and how to avoid them, and ways to do it right.
Imagined Colours Of Future Mars - What Happens If We Treat A Planet As A Giant Petri Dish?
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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