If there is no prof of life found on mars has the mars lander really acomplished much?

Question

i'm interested what you guys & girls think about this. will the images from the surface have really been worth all that money and have the scientists really discovered anything that was previously unknown?

Answer 1

The Mars Exploration Rover Mission (Spirit and Opportunity) cost $820 million. They have operated seventeen times longer than they were intended far exceeding NASA wildest expectations. Compare this to the military's $2.2 billion dollar B-2 bombers (thats $2.2 billion dollars per plane... not total). And the rovers were never really intended to find life. How can one expect to find the fossilized remains of microscopic organisms that have in all likelihood died off billions of years ago if they existed at all. The missions were to better understand the geography of Mars itself and by that criteria the rovers have been a resounding success. We now know MUCH more about Mars's past and present than we did before.

Answer 2

it's not jus timages, it's analysis of the soil as well.  And ALL space science has never yet found a sign of life, does that make all of it boring to you?

Answer 3

It's landers, plural, and while I haven't followed the Mars programs closely, I know they've made some pretty neat discoveries, not the least of which is robotic control in harsh environments at vast distances.  They have found that Mars has all the chemicals necessary to support life, including a fairly large aquifer beneath the surface dust or dirt.

One might keep in mind that no money at all has been spent on Mars, beyond a piddling amount of metal, semiconductors, and plastic.  All the money was spent right here on Earth, and has kept a very, very large number of people employed.  From IRS analyses, at least 5% of these monies eventually found their way into private charitable donations.

Answer 4

beats spending another couple billion on a bomber.

Answer 5

if there is water on mars that means there might be fish..

and they DID discover traces of water on in the soil