Why Mars Rovers Don't Study Water

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Rovers like Curiosity search for life on Mars using rock and soil samples, but why don't they examine liquid or frozen water?
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Sources:
nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/displayD...
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planetaryprotection.nasa.gov/...
www.cbtnuggets.com/blog/2016/...
marsnext.jpl.nasa.gov/scieng_...
w.astro.berkeley.edu/~kalas/et...
ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ca...
planetaryprotection.nasa.gov/...
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Опубликовано:

5 мар 2018

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Комментарии : 353

@stiimuli 6 лет назад

ok but how the hell do they accurately determine how many microbes are on a craft without accidentally adding more? Is some poor sap on his hands and knees with a magnifying glass going "4653, 4654, 47......DAMMIT I LOST COUNT!.....1.....2......3...."

@c_eclipse_s4503 6 лет назад

stiimuli best comment

@ShirinRose 6 лет назад

@theavenger2378 6 лет назад

So... You're saying Curiosity could kill?

@EduardoSanchez-un2hh 6 лет назад

Mike Jones Got it

@urf1985 6 лет назад

Buwahaha

@Rararawr 6 лет назад

I think the opposite actually. Curiosity could infect the planet with earth life. But then that may kill mars life

@AuthenticDarren 6 лет назад

That's not really the whole story. The thing is we have to be sure that any life discovered is indeed Martian life and not terrestrial (a terrestrial stowaway that could have rapidly adapted to Martian conditions to boot even), in order to know if life can naturally occur somewhere else, other than Earth. It's such a big question with gigantic implications we've got to be 100% certain about it.

@AuthenticDarren 6 лет назад

All this could be complicated by the possibility that any Martian life could be very similar to terrestrial life too. It's just a possibility.

@TheExoplanetsChannel 6 лет назад

*So interesting the new drilling technique that is being tested with the Curiosity Rover.. I hope NASA can implement it in the Europa Lander Mission*

@whtbobwntsbobget 6 лет назад

You're a great host, I love your spunk! And you're smart as hell too.

@UpcycleElectronics 6 лет назад

....um... actually... 1:19 Isaac Arthur did an episode on colonizing the Sun. Just sayin...the only thing we "can't do" is think big enough to encompass every possibility. -Jake *Isaac Arthur for Imperator*

@joeybeauvais-feisthauer3137 6 лет назад

He did make a video on that, but he did say himself that it was extremely far-fetched and that the whole concept is basically a challenge he gave to himself. He never said anything about life currently existing on the Sun, which is impossible according to everything we know about science.

@Kanglar 6 лет назад

We could visit the sun, just go at night.

@Master_Therion 6 лет назад

Not my usual joke comment, sorry. I thought Curiosity had a higher level of sterilization, but engineers opened it before launch to adjust drill bits or something and that downgraded its level. What does this mean for the 2020 rover? 3:33 Shouldn't it have a higher level of sterilization than Curiosity? I thought it could go near water.

@Master_Therion 6 лет назад

Nope, 2020 is restricted from "special regions." marsnext.jpl.nasa.gov/scieng_plantary.cfm This makes me sad :(

@Master_Therion 6 лет назад

Sebastian Elytron Are you saying that hacking a RU-vid account is... no joke.

@Master_Therion 6 лет назад

Sebastian Elytron My password is _Bad,_ it lacks character.

@microbuilder 6 лет назад

For as long as Curiosity has been in service, wouldnt any microbes be sterilized by now?

@massimookissed1023 6 лет назад

microbuilder , it could have microbes on it's underside, or in it, or on various other nether regions. Microbes on surveyor 2 were quite happy after 2 years on the moon. (Even happier when they returned to Earth. Full ticker-tape parade and everything.)

@jimday666 6 лет назад

Wow, never knew this. Thanks!

@KenMabie 6 лет назад

Why the rovers on Mars don't study water...? Simple because it's not going to be on the test.

@kylehenderson9489 6 лет назад

Isn't the ultimate point of exploring Mars to do forward contamination with the contaminating life form being us, humans?

@BRHOOOME9 6 лет назад

We want to know the original inhibitors first then we could go to make mars our new TERA

@jeiaz 6 лет назад

You don't bring two microbes of each kind when you build an arch, though.

@weissfox5857 6 лет назад

If there's some alternate type of biochemistry it would help us understand where all life can form. If we found life and it was just like ours, then we know that 1) life is probably common, and 2) this carbon-water based life is probably what most life is. After we find/rule out the existence of that and study it, we'll probably just stop worrying about the fate of it and start colonizing.

@jedaaa 6 лет назад

Weiss not really, if the life on Mrs were like ours, and being that we already know Earth and Mars have been swapping material for billions of years all it would do is confirm that and we wouldn't know which one originated first. if it were not DNA based then we'd have an interesting conversation.

@weissfox5857 6 лет назад

Yes, panspermia is also a possibility, but I think in that case it could be determined or ruled out by analyzing it, seeing how similar it is to some of our oldest life and using taxonomic/evolutionary science to see when that would have happened, and seeing if the dates add up. There are pretty convincing explanations about how carbon-water life may be vastly more likely to form than other types of life, and that if given enough time it will favor evolving towards using DNA, so I don't think it would 100% entail panspermia.

@rkpetry 6 лет назад

[00:45] incorrect nomenclature: "forward contamination" is a long-registration problem for landers waiting too long in a place (or revisit it) and 'autocontamination' has bloomed into 'enviro-contamination' before it gets around to the sampling drill (process event schedule)

@erodgenator 6 лет назад

So now RU-vid is putting multiple commercials before videos. When they reach three I'm shutting my membership down and gone forever. Thanks Ashit Pai!

@ihartevil 6 лет назад

also short curcuiting could probably be a thing as well thx for this ha bisky vid I enjoyed this

@danieljensen2626 6 лет назад

How does baking it for 30 hours make it more sterile than running it through the van Allen belts and then exposing it to the vacuum of space and blasting it with gamma rays, cosmic rays, and solar wind for 6 months?

@arielmorel2799 6 лет назад

Daniel Jensen They pass through the Van Allen belt for only some minutes. It's a lot of radiation but still not enough to kill bacteria. And the radiation during those months would nt be much higher than in the ISS.

@UpcycleElectronics 6 лет назад

abominable tardigrades

@GraveUypo 6 лет назад

30000 bacteria going through that have a bigger chance of having survivors than 30.

@CBJames2149 6 лет назад

Certain bacteria can thrive in extreme conditions.

@iulianion5565 6 лет назад

GraveUypo fair point

@donniedavis6163 6 лет назад

Love your hair!

@Jacob-fv6co 6 лет назад

So, there might be life from Earth surviving (for now) on Mars? That's really cool.

@oli2.019 6 лет назад

I thought that there were way more bacteria on a mouse but I looked it up and it is actually about right.

@Christian-ny8ly 6 лет назад

I like your enthusiasm

@NewMessage 6 лет назад

So my socks are a definite no go then?

@williamcrisp165 6 лет назад

Especially that 'special' sock, if you know what i mean

@Statsy10 6 лет назад

Bahaha!

@urf1985 6 лет назад

New Message has so many "won the internet" medals. :D

@TKrippersSpot 6 лет назад

One cannot simply calculate how many internets there are to win.

@abdullahiabdi2863 6 лет назад

It's all hoax fake

@dlacroix101 6 лет назад

Anyone know if approach vectors for Mars-bound crafts are selected so that crashes will also avoid areas with ice?

@davidbuschhorn6539 6 лет назад

The tardigrades we accidentally sent are super-happy thank you.

@poisontoad8007 6 лет назад

Include a small microwave or furnace to sterilise a scoop in situ then back right off to complete the analysis.

@garypalmer997 6 лет назад

Why not just have a database on the next probe to mars? So when it does detect microbes it can see if its an earth base one or not?! Or have the probe exsposed to radiation on the way there like from a microwave device. Like a self cleaning kinda thing. Have it on a low setting, high enough to kill the microbes but low enough not to damage the equipment, plus you could save millions of dollars theoretically?!

@patrickmccurry1563 6 лет назад

Some microbes are insanely resistant to radiation. Also the tests for life include debris which would detect such Earth born wreckage.

@inademv 6 лет назад

at what point do we stop worrying about cross contaminating planets? seems those protocols preclude even the possibility of sending a person to mars.

@owlbme 6 лет назад

I think we should intentionally plant life on other planets. Wouldn't it be epic to watch over their evolution like Gods?

@midnight8341 6 лет назад

Owl B Me you mean watch them crawl around and spread for the time that is our puny little human life? As long as you can't make sure you lived for a few million years (without going completely nuts in the process), you won't see anything...

@weissfox5857 6 лет назад

That's a 4 billion year science experiment compared to the 8,000 years civilization has existed. It just isn't really feasible with how slow evolution happens.

@yunthi 6 лет назад

my first thought would be making a pod for the rover, coat it with silver. bake the pod with the rover inside it, and only open it upon landing. the silver should be sterile enough of a surface so the rover should not get any additional bacteria on it upon leaving it?

@JeremyWS 6 лет назад

Yay!! Mars.

@MamaDespik 6 лет назад

Could we "bake" a spacecraft by flying it within a certain distance of the sun for a certain amount of time? We'd still have to do materials selection right when building the craft, but we wouldn't have to worry as much about sealing the craft to prevent re-contamination between sterilization and launch.

@Jake1702 2 года назад

So technically there is life on Mars at brief points because of the microbes we sent.

@warmango 6 лет назад

I just ran the video at .75x and could understand it much better. Signed - Old Guy.

@Jarvis459 6 лет назад

They need to find one inorder to study them, may be!!

@WestOfEarth 6 лет назад

In the next decade, there will be humans on Mars. Surely NASA could find one patch of water where they could be less strict with sterilization before humans arrive?

@GLITCH_-.- 6 лет назад

What about flooding a room with ozone and UVC and then put the engineers in it to assemble the thing? (With safety equipment, of course)

@davidspiller7977 6 лет назад

Since the radiation will eventually kill any microbes we send up with the rover over time, can't we just have the rover wait a year on Mars before examining water? Won't all the microbes be dead by then?

@kenstadaman 6 лет назад

Its very interesting how she says sampling water on mars isnt really our main focus, finding evidence of life on mars could be one of the most important scientific discoverys in human history

@MichaelEdmond 6 лет назад

Would it not be easier to do a curiosity level sterilization on the main rover, and it carries a smaller super sterile mini rover who's job is purely to recover some water samples and return to rover for study?

@bradwatson7324 6 лет назад

One would think that the possibility of finding alien life would be enough to put perfect sterilization at the top of the priorities list.

@GregMcMahan 6 лет назад

Would the entire rover need to be super-sterile or just the parts that directly come in contact with the water?

@RJ-co4ml 6 лет назад

Disclaimer: I'm super tired right now so I may have missed something. Wasn't it mentioned that solar radiation would kill the microbes? Why not just have a longer exposure time to the solar radiation and land directly on the assumed frozen water?

@R.T.and.J 6 лет назад

4:05 - 4:07 She just admitted it, conspiracy unraveled. Aliens confirmed.

@Jones7854 6 лет назад

I think my computer mouse has a lot more than 30,000 microbes

@Angel24Marin 6 лет назад

ESA Rover will have a 2m drill that I guess will have higher sterilisation than Curiosity. PD: Any video about the air breathing ion engine?

@NecroBones 6 лет назад

Perhaps the policy should change to be more like the song, "Star Trekkin'"... That is, "We come in peace, shoot to kill!" :)

@SuperNecron666 6 лет назад

What about flying through the Van Allen belt? Would that help with any sterilization?

@ViperStudiosAndy 6 лет назад

If we plan on going to Mars and using the ice for water the second we touch it that will be it contaminated. Also what stops other space agencies/companies from sending their space craft across with more microbes? I just see this as prolonging the inevitable

@ArgKnoxville86 6 лет назад

Question: Couldn't we build a launch station from outter space so that we wouldn't have to spend so much force to launch a rocket into space since we have to break away from Earth's gravity? I mean, I know it would be expensive... But if we could afford it, would it be possible? Wouldn't it give us much more reach with the same resources? Most of any rocket's power is used to break away from Earth's gravity.

@DonCDXX 6 лет назад

The best method is to start industrializing the moon with robots to harvest natural resources and manufacture there. There's no life and the suns radiation will constantly sterilize anything on the surface.

@xWood4000 6 лет назад

Google Deep space Gateway. NASA is planning on making it possible.

@ThrottleKitty 6 лет назад

I think what you are trying to describe is a Space Elevator. Considering one would cost as much s the ISS, it's a bit hard to fund!

@ArgKnoxville86 6 лет назад

Right but regardless of funding... would it be possible to move so many resources outside our planet and build such a thing? Or do we need "Earth's EARTH (ground) as something to rocket ourselves away from"?

@xWood4000 6 лет назад

Mauro De Simone Well we can't build a space elevator right now since we don't have any materials with enough tensile strength (maybe nanotubes in the future?) but a space station around the Moon is realistic. You would haul smaller pieces there like the ISS was built but build spacecradt after the station had been built.

@stephenhoughton632 6 лет назад

By this logic, we shouldn't be looking under the Antarctic ice for life. At a cirtaint point good enough has to be good enough.

@willlastnameguy8329 6 лет назад

So...earth microbes can survive on mars? If thats the case, and there are microbes on the rovers, wouldn't we contaminate the planet anyway?

@DrDingoPrime 6 лет назад

What would the procedures look like if microbes were found? How would these procedures affect the growing experience? Would they disrupt the course of their existence?

@mariposahorribilis 6 лет назад

30 microbes? How does it not pick up more than that in its exit from the atmosphere?

@Banedragon 6 лет назад

Gamma rays, great now we can't get the probes angry, because we wouldn't like it when it's angry

@cadelaide 6 лет назад

60000 microbes on my mouse!!!, well that's one clean mouse

@dodge8802 6 лет назад

How do microbes survive the heat from leaving earths atmosphere or the super cold temperatures of open space

@0mn1vore 6 лет назад

Do the Van Allen belts have enough radiation to sterilize a probe? What about leaving it in a Van Allen orbit for a while, *then* continue to Mars, or Enceladus, or wherever?

@simonxag 6 лет назад

In a manned mission to Mars you could forget any level of sterilization.

@HorzaPanda 6 лет назад

I'd be really surprised if my mouse only had 30,000 bacteria on it XD

@xyzzyx7812 6 лет назад

Miss Piggy is back

@mr.j_krr_80 6 лет назад

DAAAAAAIIIIMN thas a gud question.

@ZZ-sb8os 6 лет назад

@AliceLucindaBronte 6 лет назад

Surely Martian microbes would be different to anything we've found on Earth and I assume we've got past the point where every sample of regular Earth dirt you scrape off your shoe has something new in it? So surely we could find Martian microbes (if there are any) without perfect sterilization?

@kitrana 6 лет назад

wouldn't a craft wandering around on mars eventually kill all the microbes that were on it then? if you want to splash aroudn in puddles on mars all you would need to do is wait.

@behavedave 6 лет назад

We haven't sampled the most probable area of life on Mars because of the cost of thorough sterilisation? Given that question is much more intriguing and exciting than anything about rocks (to the majority of people) then the conspiracy explanation sounds a heck of a lot more likely.

@SunriseFireberry 6 лет назад

"A spacecraft is a lot larger than your mouse." --CC

@jacksonrae2785 6 лет назад

the most sterile solution would be a human researcher who re-sanitizes a small suit that's already sterile. smaller load to sterilize and easier to control.

@daddyleon 6 лет назад

So..Europa would be a massive headache to study for perhaps many decades to come.

@McHaven07 6 лет назад

This is why we have to build the ships in SPACE!

@zatar123 4 года назад

This is where a moon base comes in. The Moon is not swarming with microbes, so we don't have any to clean off after the probe is built. Easy. Expect for the building a moon base step. But details, right?😁

@0seraphic 6 лет назад

What if we just 3D printed rovers on Mars using local Mars materials? No foreign contaminants almost guaranteed.

@Mattteus 6 лет назад

get baked, get so high you reach Mars

@voradorked 6 лет назад

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9p0oKQhF5d4.html

@robertbennett2796 6 лет назад

Wouldn't the vacuum of space kill the microbe and the cosmic rays and radiation

@InfectedChris 6 лет назад

Maybe, if there was a way to sterilize the craft when it's already in space, exposed to radiation which could kill remaining microbes.

@SuperCookieGaming_ 6 лет назад

You could just have a bigger rocket and just plunge the rover towards the sun so its radiation kills everything on board then boost it back up to mars but that takes a lot of energy.

@anthonyspecf 6 лет назад

If microbes on the rovers eventually die due to radiation exposure on Mars (hence why microbes are allowed at the 30,000 level), how long does that process take? Would it be possible to use the rovers for an extended period of time doing other experiments, and then when the microbes die off, test the water there? Is it not doable because the process would take too long or because parts of the rovers might be shielded from radiation (for protection of the electronics) and therefore always have some form of microbe infestation? Just curious.

@supermarioblacktiger 6 лет назад

so some space crafts get baked before they get high.

@Dr_V 6 лет назад

Gamma rays can damage some electronics, why not use high energy X-rays instead? High penetration X-rays are strong enough to sterilize any microbes even behind thin metal walls, but at the same time too weak to ionize inorganic materials, thus not damaging any sensitive electronic parts. Generating X-rays takes up a hefty amount of electricity, but compared to other methods that's not very expansive.

@botonja 6 лет назад

What about panspermia? Aren't the Earth and Mars exchanging rocks because of the meteoroid impacts, in which could be some extremofile bacteria from our planet?

@VZ3W 6 лет назад

so the extreme heat from exiting the planet does nothing to not ONE microbe, huh?..

@Jaxen90841 6 лет назад

Sort of like a Prime Directive. Someday, Kirk and Spock will follow our example.

@defaultmesh 6 лет назад

2:12 is that dan and gav?

@LeavingGoose046 6 лет назад

Aren't we planning to send people up there sometime soon? They have a *lot* more microbes than those rovers *and* they produce them themselves.

@puncheex2 6 лет назад

Presumably by then we'll know. It is possible, not likely, that sending men to Mars could be cancelled on that account.

@dgray7537 6 лет назад

Just play Blink 182 on a 30 hour loop. Nothing could survive that.

@soogymoogi 6 лет назад

Oh come on, I'm already a quarter of the way to 100 and we still don't have any plans to check if we're, yknow, alone in the world atm? Mildly frustrated. Sure, it's kinda cool to know what mars may have been like before Granpappy Paramecium ever thought about having more than one cell, but... I dunno, possibly answering the question of extraterrestrial life existing seems like it'd be a priority.

@gollem148 6 лет назад

You didn't mention anything to do with the space treaty that actually makes it illegal for any country to go searching for life.

@emmanuelsanchez9303 6 лет назад

Tardigrades look at this video and just laugh all of those techniques off 😂😂😂

@slurricrasher9923 6 лет назад

I love this channel but I gotta say this. When I saw the title "Why rovers don't study water" I immediately thought: Because there is no damn water where they wen't lol Yes I know water exists on Mars but frozen at the poles where they can't go. PS: I haven't actually watched the video, just saw the title and had to comment quick before going to watch my movie, will be back though!

@Slimshady-db5sv 6 лет назад

0:18 is this somekind of disclaimer for conspirers like Flat earthers.

@Christodoulosk 6 лет назад

I think those rovers are some years already on Mars. So they assume that after so long time some of the bacteria that came with the rovers are still alive? Sounds a little bit suspicious to me...

@SpaceScienceTv 6 лет назад

whos running behind u ? dog ? (so fast)

@b.lloydreese2030 6 лет назад

so...why not have something go there and sit and wait till the microbes die, THEN sample for water and look for life

@crocshock911 6 лет назад

How about baking it with the power of the sun on its journey?

@APAstronaut333 6 лет назад

The truth is out there

@pierreabbat6157 6 лет назад

I misread this as "rivers don't study water" :D

@TiagoTiagoT 6 лет назад

What?! I thought all missions in recent decades had already implemented high levels of sterilization :(

@bearcatben4762 5 лет назад

Make it super radioactive tartigrade killing radioactibe

@habibaghasafari2237 6 лет назад

How do the microbes survive 9 months of extream heat, cold and radiation of journey to Mars? Shouldn't they already be killed off when the spacecraft reaches Mars from 9 months of exposure to outer space?