Both need attention. And I'd add Enceladus. And many other places that are of especial interest for search for life, including the lunar poles (which might have meteorites with evidence of early stages of evolution), even Io (some exotic non Earth type biology is possible there in principle), even Ceres potentially depending what we find, and upper Venus atmosphere could have traces of life still there, microbes that float for days in the atmosphere, in the more habitable regions at the top of the cloud deck which grow and reproduce as they slowly drift down, then their progeny are taken up by updrafts to the top of the cloud layer again - evolved from an earlier ecosystem that once covered the entire planet in the early days of our solar system.
But the humans should be in orbit rather than on the surface, and explore the surface via teleprsesence, if we have a colony there. Or just explore from Earth via semi-autonomous robots - our moble eyes and senses and hands and feet in the solar system.
Otherwise we risk just finding life there that we brought ourselves because, sadly, there is no way to sterilize humans of microbes, or our habitats, so we can't land on a habitable planet and hope to keep it unchanged. And both these places are currently considered to be potentially habitable for the purposes of planetary protection..
But the humans should be in orbit rather than on the surface, and explore the surface via teleprsesence, if we have a colony there. Or just explore from Earth via semi-autonomous robots - our moble eyes and senses and hands and feet in the solar system.
Otherwise we risk just finding life there that we brought ourselves because, sadly, there is no way to sterilize humans of microbes, or our habitats, so we can't land on a habitable planet and hope to keep it unchanged. And both these places are currently considered to be potentially habitable for the purposes of planetary protection..
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
4.8m answer views110.4k this month
Top Writer2017, 2016, and 2015
Published WriterHuffPost, Slate, and 4 moreHuffPost, Slate, Forbes, Newsweek, Business Insider, and Science 2.0