Re:ExoMars launch scheduled for 09:31 GMT (10:31 CET)
by kristianp on Monday March 14, 2016 @07:42PM
(#11286421)
From [1], "The primary goal of the ExoMars programme is to address the question of whether life has ever existed on Mars. ".
Really? Why is so much money spent, seemingly on just that goal? It seems such a waste to search for life on Mars when it's so unlikely. Sure finding signs of past life would be a great discovery, but it seems unlikely after the number of missions that have gone already. Surely there are better goals for a mission.
If you're really searching for tiny signs of life in a nook or layer of dirt, wouldn't you have to send 100s of thousands of probes, not just one additional lander?
Really? Why is so much money spent, seemingly on just that goal? It seems such a waste to search for life on Mars when it's so unlikely. Sure finding signs of past life would be a great discovery, but it seems unlikely after the number of missions that have gone already. Surely there are better goals for a mission.
If you're really searching for tiny signs of life in a nook or layer of dirt, wouldn't you have to send 100s of thousands of probes, not just one additional lander?
Rant ends. Sorry.
[1] http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars/What...