The water of Mars is the most Martian

2015/10/05 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Astronomia
• Astronautika
• Astrofisika
• Etika

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Finding evidence that there may be liquid water on Mars has become weekly scientific news. In this sense, both scientists and journalists have mentioned the possibility of finding living beings on Mars and the project of sending human beings to Mars has been reinforced.

However, expert Lee Billings warns in Scientific American magazine that a major obstacle must be overcome to travel to Mars. This obstacle is not the distance, money or lack of support from politicians or society, but the possible Martians and respect for them.

Biling recalled that the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Pact prohibits the spread of other worlds outside our world. In the case of Mars, in 2002, the international organization COSPAR identified the ideal places for the growth of living beings and declared them "places of special protection". In this way, the vehicles that circulate on Mars cannot go in case to these places.

Given that a robot found terrestrial bacteria that survived for two and a half years on the Moon, the prudence of COSPAR does not seem disproportionate. Before sending anything to Mars you have to make sure that it is well sterilized, otherwise, if you find a living being can be earthlings and not Martian. And, according to Billing, at the moment it is not possible to send human beings under these conditions. Therefore, it seems that man will go many years on the ground of the red planet because of the Martians.

 

Published in the newspaper Berria.