What if we genetically engineer an organism capable of living on Mars
This organism wouldn't have to be very sophisticated (maybe a one cell organism) but it would be capable of living on Mars, where we would drop it off and it would be capable of reproducing and evolving. We could go visit them once in a while and maybe mess with them by abducting a few of them, subject them to some kind of testing and then releasing them back into their general population. If they evolve far enough we may be able to give them a little head start to the next phase of their evolution by introducing some of our technology. Where's the harm ;)
Update: if you think this is too far fetched, check this out.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/scientists-create-synthetic-cells/story?id=10708502
We would be Gods, or playing 1
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They would end up like us
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Maybe we can flood Mars with water. A flood on such a scale that they talk about it for tens of thousands of years. We'll have to tell one of them to build an arc though and fill it with different species. We can also send a radical liberal to live among them until they get pissed of at him and nail him to something ;) I mean, we can have so much fun with them. It would be better than reality TV ;) Side: We would be Gods, or playing 1
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I guess we'd be playing God, but I bet we can do it. All we need is for some form of archeabacteria to begin to thrive on the planet. I'm sure they'd just need a water source and some basic nutrients and then they'd be off. The only problem is that there's no reason for doing this. The Martian atmosphere is much different than ours. Their high amounts of CO2 would be great for early life, which would most likely use it to photosynthesize. However, they have a thin atmosphere and I''m not entirely sure life would thrive because of this. Also, there's not reason for us to spend money on this. If we were able to successfully put life on Mars, then the planet would still not be livable or useful for billions of years. It would take that long for enough oxygen to accumulate to support aerobic organisms. Side: We would be Gods, or playing 1
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I wonder if it would be possible to basically create organic machines which could self-replicate and respond to their environment in such a way that they terraform mars in a few thousand years or less so that we could live on it then. I don't know much about mars, but it seems feasible we could use machines to rapidly change a planet. Some of the changes that need to be made are chemical and the best chemical producing machines we have are organisms. 70% or so of earth's oxygen comes from small organisms in its oceans. If we can modify those so that they could live on mars then we can probably start making the martian atmosphere have more oxygen. Side: We would be Gods, or playing 1
I would make a strong bet on Tardigrada as a template for Martian life, instead of Archaea. My reasoning is that their phylum is hardier towards space conditions, like lack of atmosphere, dessication, ionising radiation, and extremes in heat and cold. Archaea tend to be specialised towards one extreme, on the other hand. Side: They would end up like us
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Being able to go into Cryptobiosis like they can would be very good. I'm not sure what they could metabolism on mars though since they mainly eat plants and bacteria. You'll have to change their genetics so they could photosynthesize or use raw chemicals to survive. Side: They would end up like us
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Today I read the news and look what I found? http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/ So I guess it's not too far fetched ;) Side: We would be Gods, or playing 1
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