New Science
In the current science environment in the United States, the field of space ventures and research appears less robust than it has in past decades. New science areas of interest and research, such as those centered on the questions of creating sustainable and clean energy, have been drawing more attention than a field which critics sometimes strike at as overly expensive and a self-indulgent waste of valuable government resources. Those scientists committed to maintaining aerospace technology as a current science, heartening news may have come from a report of findings that was published in March 2010. New science findings suggest a much stronger chance that life may exist somewhere on Mars. Such a conclusion, if firmly proven, would strongly overturn current science judgments held of the Red Planet and spark new science ventures in a field that otherwise may have difficulty holding onto public heartstrings and governmental purse-strings.
Current science derives its negative judgment on the probability of Mars having given rise to some form of life from the results gathered up by the vessels remotely dispatched to the planet’s surface. The guiding dictum of such missions has been uncover complex carbon-based molecules such as are known to be the sources of life on Earth, and in that function they have been notable failures. Now, a new science team of researchers is examining another possible source of evidence of life existing on the planet. Despite the absence of carbon, sulfur is in great abundance on Mars, outstripping the amount that can be found on Earth. Scientists have been aware on Earth of the pattern of one kind of sulfur-containing compounds, known as sulphates, into another, called sulphides, through the operation of microbes. A new science proposal is for investigation into whether this pattern can also be detected taking place among sulfur compounds on Mars.
The researchers who wish to introduce this technique to current science formulated the concept for it after observing the formation of sulphide particles in a crater in the Canadian Arctic. Hope for the usefulness of this new science approach was encouraged by the finding that the process of conversion of the sulfur compounds occurred millions of years ago without its signature being erased in the meantime.
As of yet, NASA officials have been encouraging to this new science technique for answering a persistent question about one of the Earth’s closest neighbors in the Solar System.
The most current science method for implementing this suggestion will come with the landing of the NASA-designed Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) on the surface of the planet in 2012. Among the equipment it is carrying is a device specifically fitted to search for evidence of the conversion process occurring among Martin sulfur compounds. Even small variations could be used to infer that the processes of life have taken place on Mars. If successful, the implementation of this current science initiative could greatly revitalize the sense of space missions as genuinely useful scientific endeavors for uncovering information related to life on Earth.