Tiny Greenhouse Could Fly Plants to Mars in 2018

[Dryson]

Lifeforms from Earth may touch down on Mars just a few years from now — but those interplanetary travelers would be plants, not people.

http://www.space.com/28165-tiny-greenhouse-mars-one-colony.html

The Seed Mission is by far the most important mission since the Moon landing for humanity.

If plants are able to be successfully grown and even transplanted to the Martian soil then the eventuality of terraforming Mars is more of a reality.

What do you think will happen with this mission?

 

[Melakon]

Any Earth plant could become an invasive species, covering the planet like kudzu. So these people want to potentially contaminate Mars and risk endangering any undiscovered life forms (microscopic for example) that might already be there. It's not enough that we're destroying our own planet, we want to destroy every planet in the solar system, because we're humans, damn it.

 

[Amaris]

Lifeforms from Earth may touch down on Mars just a few years from now — but those interplanetary travelers would be plants, not people.

http://www.space.com/28165-tiny-greenhouse-mars-one-colony.html

The Seed Mission is by far the most important mission since the Moon landing for humanity.

If plants are able to be successfully grown and even transplanted to the Martian soil then the eventuality of terraforming Mars is more of a reality.

What do you think will happen with this mission?

I think unless they're very lucky, the plants will all die.

 

[Silvercrest]

I think (bearing Melakon's post in mind) that IF they're very lucky, the plants will all die.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Why bother with a greenhouse on Mars when you can have one in deep space? The plants will still all die, but at least you won't risk contaminating Mars in the process. Besides, deep space is much more alien, so it adds to the coolness factor. True, it has already been done, but that's not deep space enough.

By the way, plants might die, but microbes might not. So you could have it both ways – greenhouse screwed, planet screwed.

 

[publiusr]

I'd actually like to see the plants take root myself...not going to happen though.

 

[Cjohnson1701]

Any Earth plant could become an invasive species, covering the planet like kudzu. So these people want to potentially contaminate Mars and risk endangering any undiscovered life forms (microscopic for example) that might already be there. It's not enough that we're destroying our own planet, we want to destroy every planet in the solar system, because we're humans, damn it.

That's a really good point there, kudos to you. The real question is when is it not acceptable to "terraform"? To eradicate, and/or interfere with a planet's native life.

Putting aside the fact the plants would most likely die either in transit or shortly after arrival. Life no longer exists on Mars in an active state, in fact I would call it a "post-garden" world, ripe for terraforming. It would be very difficult to do, but I'm all in favor for it.

But I'm avoiding the point, we haven't even set a human foot on Mars yet. So why are we sending plants ahead without a caretaker? This is an ambitious idea, albeit irresponsible. I get the sentiment, but honestly I think this is a bad idea overall.

Maybe we should have a prime directive for future terraforming...but that's more of an ethics problem.

Either way, this is a part of the Mars One program. To be perfectly honest, I have a really, really bad gut feeling about it. So I'll just keep an eye on it and hope they don't royally screw it up for all of humanity by rushing to colonize Mars.

CJ

 

[DarthTom]

Maybe we should have a prime directive for future terraforming...but that's more of an ethics problem.
CJ

We cannot find agreement on real life problems here on earth - even among friendly nations let alone some kind of agreement on Mars e.g. global warming.

Corporations and corporate titans like Musk will likely be on Mars far earlier than any kind of agreement can be reached. They won't give a shit about contamination of another planet. Shit most of them don't care about the one we live on now.

 

[Cjohnson1701]

Maybe we should have a prime directive for future terraforming...but that's more of an ethics problem.
CJ

We cannot find agreement on real life problems here on earth - even among friendly nations let alone some kind of agreement on Mars e.g. global warming.

Corporations and corporate titans like Musk will likely be on Mars far earlier than any kind of agreement can be reached. They won't give a shit about contamination of another planet. Shit most of them don't care about the one we live on now.

I read something somewhere on the internet by a kennedy saying something about a "wait" differential or something, it's a theory that says that we would have an approximation of 1000 years from today until interstellar travel is "feasible". (I honestly give it 300 to 500 years). The solar system is moot at this point, much like a college dorm possessed by fratboys moving out of our parents house for the first time. It's going to get messy.

Hopefully we will have wizened up by the time we go interstellar.

Then again, that means we would have to abandon the current concept(s) of God,(Much like a naive young child no longer believing in Santa Claus(FAT CHANCE!)), politics, business, nationalities, military...well about 90% of everything that we would consider the backbone of our current civilization. Yeah, any type of prime directive will never happen in our lifetime, but we can at least plant the seeds for our future generations to figure out something.

Also, just a thought you could leave all those people who don't give a shit about earth on earth, then take the best and brightest off earth. Finally, you could quarantine the planet until they figured it out and fix the bloody planet, or you could cause a nuclear holocaust as an easy if not completely and totally inhumane, the most unethically evil thing you could do.

Well, that was a tangent.
Putting the possible implications of mass genocide that's inside my head aside. I think that the people on Mars, in the end will be better off, frankly because unlike Earth, whose environment on the whole is gentle to us, our biggest enemy will be just surviving on the hostile environment that is Mars. I'll elaborate more but I'm really tired so I'll finish any of my thoughts on this later.

CJ

 

[DarthTom]

Yeah, any type of prime directive will never happen in our lifetime, but we can at least plant the seeds for our future generations to figure out something.

You are far more optimistic about human nature than I am. The future of the human race is far more likely to look like the one as depcited in the film Lost in Space where we've trashed the planet and used up our resources to virtual extinction of the species and one where terrorists continue to fight the rest of the population

or

As in the Aliens franchise - one where large corporations rule than the optimistic one as presented in Trek.

 

[Metryq]

any type of prime directive will never happen in our lifetime, but we can at least plant the seeds for our future generations to figure out something.

It's the most heinous of all acts to "contaminate" a nearby planet that has already shared material with us, but it's okay to contaminate future generations with today's self-righteous self-hatred?

 

[Cjohnson1701]

Yeah, any type of prime directive will never happen in our lifetime, but we can at least plant the seeds for our future generations to figure out something.

You are far more optimistic about human nature than I am. The future of the human race is far more likely to look like the one as depcited in the film Lost in Space where we've trashed the planet and used up our resources to virtual extinction of the species and one where terrorists continue to fight the rest of the population

or

As in the Aliens franchise - one where large corporations rule than the optimistic one as presented in Trek.

Well, I'd say the future would be a bit of everything really, just look at history. We, as a species created rules for warfare, (The Geneva Conventions) that are quite chivalrous. Plus, there are things you can't do in business which is based on ethical properties. In comparison to 300 years ago neither of those concepts existed then in a fully realized form. Think on how much more different we will be in 500 or 1000 years from now, sure we may not be like the Utopia Roddenberry dreamed up, but at a subconscious level it is still the goal.

As for things like terrorists, well much like cancer we will never fully get rid of it, for there will always be violent misguided/brainwashed/evil humans who will cause terror/mayhem/destruction. How to deal with that, well I have no idea.

The best we can do is to educate our species in science as much as possible. Also another thing we can do is to keep the spirit of Trek alive, if a man from the 60's came up with that future, who is to say we can't keep that alive and inspire those will come after us with our media?

any type of prime directive will never happen in our lifetime, but we can at least plant the seeds for our future generations to figure out something.

It's the most heinous of all acts to "contaminate" a nearby planet that has already shared material with us, but it's okay to contaminate future generations with today's self-righteous self-hatred?

Haha, I see what you did there, punny. As I said earlier, Our solar system is moot, or at least Mars is. So we shouldn't worry too much about it. For the " today's self-righteous self-hatred" part, I have no idea what you're talking about. If you could expand upon that for clarification, that would be great. Thanks.

-Blarg-

 

[tharpdevenport]

There's seems to be this false start that seeding an already dead planet that's not going to re-emerge by itself and killing off any potentially still in existence indigenous seedling plant life is a bad thing. Again: it's dead. Who is to say bringing it back to life with plant life from Earth, invasive or not, is a bad thing? Let's take a show of hands of indigenous Martians.

Oh, that's right.

Life gave Mars a chance. Circumstances, whether out of control or in control, lead to that chance failing. Now it's our turn. And since I don't see any Martian flags planted on there...

 

[137th Gebirg]

^^^ Of course you haven't. They were all PhotoShopped out of the raw images by NASA...

 

[bbjeg]

You'd think we would focus on how to terraform Earth's deserts before Mars'.

 

[HIjol]

"Now, let me get this straight; something you can transplant...?

 

[Dryson]

I'd actually like to see the plants take root myself...not going to happen though.

Taken from another topic
http://www.space.com/28394-nasa-volcano-robot-tech.html

If the core of Mars is still active and a volcano tube discovered then perhaps the plant life could be seeded inside of the volcano tubes. I have seen many pictures of hardened lava flows with a flower or other plant growing right up through the cracks of the hardened lava.

If there is enough carbon dioxide, just add water and let the plants do the rest.

 

[scotthm]

If there is enough carbon dioxide, just add water and let the plants do the rest.

There isn't.

---------------

 

[Silvercrest]

If it's that simple, then why worry about the greenhouse? Just shoot a bunch of seeds to the surface.

OR

Maybe it isn't that simple.