Why not send a microscope to Mars?

March 10, 2006 9:00 AM

Life on Mars: Why not send up a remote control optical microscope package?

Seems to me that other stuff we've sent there is at least as complicated. Why not send something that allows us to look for microscopic life by direct observation? Put a little dirt in a nutrient solution, wait a bit, put a drop on a slide, put it on a microscope stage, see what we've got via video link.

posted by ZenMasterThis to Science & Nature (9 answers total)

Who says they don't have a microscope? The problem with a nutrient solution: It'd weigh something; We don't know what "nutrients" would be good for whatever life is there; and, doesn't it seem a bit premature to attempt to culture alien life when we have no idea what it's like?
posted by skynxnex at 9:07 AM on March 10, 2006

3 words: location, location, location!

Although they have stuff to take a closer look at samples, we've hardly found the best place to do research on mars, and so before settinig up a lab there, we really need to find where the best location is to set up that lab.
posted by furtive at 9:35 AM on March 10, 2006

Response by poster: skynxnex: we've already attempted to culture alien life in a nutrient solution on Mars; results were analyzed using a gas chromatograph (I think) and were inconclusive. Also, the microscope the articles refer to don't seem to go to the power you'd need to see bacteria-sized microbes (400x?).
posted by ZenMasterThis at 9:39 AM on March 10, 2006

You're in luck... from the 2007 Phoenix Mars Lander, the Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA):

MECA characterizes the soil of Mars much like a gardener would test the soil in his or her yard. By dissolving small amounts of soil in water, MECA determines the pH, the abundance of minerals such as magnesium and sodium cations or chloride, bromide and sulfate anions, as well as dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide. Looking through a microscope, MECA examines the soil grains to help determine their origin and mineralogy. Needles stuck into the soil determine the water and ice content, and the ability of both heat and water vapor to penetrate the soil.

Incidentally, it was originally going to fly on the Mars 2001 Lander but that got cancelled after the Mars Polar Lander cratered.
posted by smackfu at 10:05 AM on March 10, 2006

Just to remind folks, NASA's latest Mars probe will be attempting to attain a stable orbit this afternoon. I believe in one hour. This is the fun part where we either pat ourselves on the back for our scientific achievement or wonder just how many pieces a multi-million dollar probe makes when it crashes at thousands of miles per hour into the martian surface.
posted by Atreides at 10:55 AM on March 10, 2006

Funny timing on this, I just went to see Roving Mars last night. In fact both Spirit and Opportunity had 2 microscopes each.

RM was worth seeing, though I could have used another hour about the rovers themselves and more hard science.
posted by phearlez at 10:59 AM on March 10, 2006

Response by poster: smackfu: again, it doesn't appear that they're looking for microbes with the MECA.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 11:27 AM on March 10, 2006

ZenMasterThis, I think the reason NASA sends tools to look for evidence of life's history, rather than evidence of current life, is the belief that Mars' most life-filled times were deep in the past, and so it'll be far easier to find identifiable historical life-signs.
posted by nomisxid at 11:49 AM on March 10, 2006

although you know there is a guy who had a science package on Viking who swears up and down that his data showed diurnal variations in some gas or other that to him means only one thing: there is microbial life in martian dirt even today.

of course like everyone else involved with the viking science projects disagrees and thinks it was a sensor error, or some other anomaly.

linky

i said it before and i'll say it again - Roving Mars: Pure Engineer Porn.
posted by joeblough at 1:52 PM on March 10, 2006