There are some lifeforms from Earth that could survive on Mars, but not cockroaches. Main ones are
But you don't want to do the experiment - because - who knows what is the best way to deal with Mars?
I wrote an article about it, this graphic illustrates the issue, possible colours Mars might turn in the future depending on our actions now:
The last one is a "catch all" for any number of other possibilities resulting from deliberate or accidental changes to Mars.
See Imagined Colours Of Future Mars - What Happens If We Treat A Planet As A Giant Petri Dish?
How can we know what colour of Mars our descendants will want - and what properties they want the life there to have? And even if we know, we don't have the knowledge yet to achieve one of these rather than others.
If you think we have enough knowledge to start on a project to terraform Mars - take a look at Trouble With Terraforming Mars and it might give some pause for thought.
The problem with experimenting with Mars, rather than a petri dish - is that the whole planet is interconnected, especially through the dust storms, which would shield microbial spores caught in cracks in the dust from the UV light and spread them anywhere on Mars.
This means the experiment, once started, can't be reversed or turned in another direction if the lifeforms have effects we don't desire - or indeed - evolve into new forms of life that cause problems for us or for study of Mars. And at present it is way beyond our capability to predict what will, might or could happen.
- cyanobacteria - Chroococcidiopsis is the likeliest - because it has astonishing resistance to ionizing radiation, and to UV light - and also has the ability to use the humidity of the atmosphere at night even in the very dry equatorial regions.
- Lichens
- recent experiments by DLR found that some polar and high altitude lichens can survive the conditions on Mars and even metabolize and photosynthesize, without any water, again using night time humidity - Halobacterium salinarum - it can survive without water in the Atacama desert, in salt deposits that take up water vapour from the atmosphere. Again this could work on Mars - and Phoenix found salts that deliquesce - different mixtures of salt from Earth but same capability - though on Mars has to be at very low temperatures.
- There may be habitats for life deep underground on Mars - where geothermal heating heats up the ice. Mars is predicted to probably have a liquid layer, perhaps one or two hundred meters thick or more, of liquid water a few kilometers down, trapped by rocks and ice above it and heated by the warmth of the planet below it. Perhaps some of the micro-organisms from Earth that live at those depths could also live on Mars.
- Some multicellular "worms" can survive on very low levels of oxygen,
Halicephalobus mephisto - on Earth they live in those deep underground habitats. Perhaps could survive deep underground on Mars also - if there is enough oxygen there for them. - Numerous archaea - their genetic fragments get isolated from spacecraft assembly clean rooms for instance.
Most microbes are like that, the so called "Microbial Dark Matter". Nobody knows for sure what their metabolism is, or what they are like, what they do, what they look like. There is nothing known about them except these genetic fragments. Recently there's a new project to use new techniques to sequence their genomes.
Microbial Dark Matter
Seems pretty likely that some of those may also be able to survive on Mars.
But you don't want to do the experiment - because - who knows what is the best way to deal with Mars?
I wrote an article about it, this graphic illustrates the issue, possible colours Mars might turn in the future depending on our actions now:
See Imagined Colours Of Future Mars - What Happens If We Treat A Planet As A Giant Petri Dish?
How can we know what colour of Mars our descendants will want - and what properties they want the life there to have? And even if we know, we don't have the knowledge yet to achieve one of these rather than others.
If you think we have enough knowledge to start on a project to terraform Mars - take a look at Trouble With Terraforming Mars and it might give some pause for thought.
The problem with experimenting with Mars, rather than a petri dish - is that the whole planet is interconnected, especially through the dust storms, which would shield microbial spores caught in cracks in the dust from the UV light and spread them anywhere on Mars.
This means the experiment, once started, can't be reversed or turned in another direction if the lifeforms have effects we don't desire - or indeed - evolve into new forms of life that cause problems for us or for study of Mars. And at present it is way beyond our capability to predict what will, might or could happen.
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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