At first, the title of the post made me think that we killed all (possible) life on Mars, not just in the samples taken, just by having landed there and contaminated the planet. Now that would have been a true tragedy.
I mean, to be fair, it would be quintessentially human if we did.
It’s kind of our thing to fuck up thriving ecosystems for no good reason.
We’ve even managed to turn our once vacant exosphere into a high velocity garbage dump, now that’s commitment to pollution.
There are stories that I wish would go away because they are just completely unsubstantiated. This is one of them.
The article offers an explanation of the Viking test results, why do you think it’s unsubstantiated?
Some pretty interesting ideas. I was unaware that anything was living in the Atacama salt deposits, which certainly lends some credence to the idea that something could be pulling moisture out of the air on Mars, thin as it is.





