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On February 13, 2020, NASA announced the official end of the mission of the InSight rover, because the solar panels of the InSight rover, which had previously excavated on Mars, were covered with ash, causing the battery to run out of power and completely lose the probe's energy source.
The InSight rover landed on Mars on November 26, 2018, and found seismic waves on the surface of Mars and detected some information about the interior of Mars, which also gave people a better understanding of the structure of the Martian interior.
As a close neighbor of the Earth, Mars has naturally triggered a heated discussion about whether there is life on Mars, and NASA has been working hard to find traces on Mars to find out whether there was life on Mars.
The environment on the surface of Mars is extremely harsh, but there are signs of liquid water in the past, which has also led to a new enthusiasm for whether there is life on Mars, so what information did scientists find in the InSight mission?
Can life exist on Mars?
Did life on Mars come from Earth?
1. Why are you enthusiastic about life on Mars?
Mars is the fourth closest planet to the sun, its diameter is about half of the Earth, and naturally its mass is not as large as the Earth, so the gravitational pull of Mars is only 30% of that of the Earth, so the material on Mars will be sparse than the material on Earth.
The atmosphere of Mars contains only 0.1% oxygen, while the Earth has about 21%, which also means that the air on Mars is very thin, so it cannot protect the surface temperature well, so the average temperature of Mars is only minus 60 degrees Celsius, and the extreme minimum temperature is even less than minus 100 degrees Celsius, and the surface of Mars is also dry, and it is difficult to retain liquid water.
Of course, scientists have found some signs of liquid water on Mars, which also makes people think that liquid water once existed on Mars, but as the Martian atmosphere becomes thinner, water will become unstable, easy to evaporate, and even turn into ice, so if life on Earth wants to survive on Mars, it needs to adapt to the harsher environment on Mars.
The surface of Mars is subjected to greater ultraviolet rays, which poses a threat to life, of course, there are some extreme environments on Earth, but there is an atmosphere and magnetic fields on Earth to protect life on Earth, and there is no on Mars, so the radiation on Mars will be more intense.
Moreover, there is not much organic matter on Mars, and many life on Earth is composed of organic matter, so life on Mars is even more difficult to survive.
However, although the environment on Mars is very unfriendly to life, as scientists have found signs of liquid water on Mars, it has also created a new enthusiasm for life on Mars.
In 2015, NASA's Curiosity rover discovered some ancient riverbeds on Mars, which suggest that there may have been a lot of water flowing through here a long time ago, and there are traces of sedimentation in the places where the water flows, which also indicates that the water in these places may not be too deep.
The Curiosity rover also found traces of organic matter on Mars, which may also be evidence of life on Mars.
Organic matter is the basis of life, and there is a lot of organic matter on Earth, so scientists believe that there may also be organic matter on Mars, which also means that there is a possibility of life on Mars.
In 2015, when NASA announced traces of organic matter, it also said that these traces could be evidence of life, but at the moment it is only evidence of the possible existence of life, not evidence of the existence of life.
In 2018, the European Space Agency found some water vapor on Mars, which was found in the polar regions of Mars, and because the temperature in the polar regions of Mars is very low, the water vapor can easily form ice, which also means that there may be water ice in the polar regions of Mars, but more evidence is needed.
Second, life on Mars may have come from Earth.
Traces of organic matter on Mars may be evidence of life, but it is not enough to prove that life ever existed on Mars.
There are also some extreme environments on the earth, for example, the scientific expedition team has found that there are some cyanobacteria under the glaciers in Antarctica, and these cyanobacteria once lived in Antarctica 250,000 years ago, so people think that life on Mars may come from the earth, but the environment on Mars is too harsh for life on Earth, so life on Earth needs to go through some long evolutionary process to survive on Mars.
There are also some life on Earth that can adapt to extreme environments, such as some extremely thermophilic bacteria, which can survive in high temperatures of 120 degrees Celsius, and they are also very resistant to ultraviolet rays, and some halophilic bacteria, which can survive in environments with high salt concentrations, but life on Earth still cannot adapt to the environment on Mars.
If life on Earth is brought to Mars, then life on Earth will be exposed to strong radiation on Mars, and it will also pose a threat to life on Mars, so a better way to carry out interstellar migration is to modify Mars so that life on Earth can survive on Mars.
NASA scientist James Green said in a book "Earth-Terraforming Mars" that he proposed to create some greenhouse gases on Mars, which would increase the temperature of Mars, and also increase the density of the atmosphere on Mars, which would increase the pressure on the surface, so that more liquid water could be retained.
However, if the "terraforming" project is carried out, it will take a lot of time, and many people think that when human science and technology develop to a certain extent, human beings will carry out interstellar migration, but the environment on Mars is too harsh, how can the environment on Mars become suitable for human habitation?
Scientists believe that when humans migrate to the planet, they can create a large amount of greenhouse gases on Mars, which can improve the environment on Mars, but there is a big problem on Mars, that is, the lack of protection from the magnetic field on Earth, so the radiation on the surface of Mars will be more intense.
So scientists think that an artificial magnetic field can be built on Mars, the artificial magnetic field is the principle of using coils to generate magnetic fields, scientists can dig some holes in the equator of Mars, and then set up some huge coils on these holes, so that they can generate magnetic fields, so that the radiation on the surface of Mars can be weakened.
But at the moment, these are just some ideas, and many scientific and technological problems need to be overcome.
epilogue
Signs of water on Mars may prove that life once existed, but we still haven't found conclusive evidence at the moment, so life on Mars still needs more exploration.
The Mars migration plan is not only a scientific and technological problem, but also needs to consider other factors, such as ecological balance, ethics and morality, to ensure the continued survival of life on Mars.
Human beings will also encounter many problems in the process of interstellar migration, and the interstellar immigration program is also a process of human exploration of the new world, if the Mars immigration program can be realized, then it will become an important milestone in the history of human civilization.