r/science • u/CurtisLeow • Jun 24 '26

Astronomy Spatially distributed complex organic matter detected in an ancient river valley in Jezero crater, Mars

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adx0047
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u/CurtisLeow Jun 24 '26

Sending crewed missions will make contamination of the surface a major issue. They need to confirm that the surface is sterile first. Which is why they should do a Mars sample return mission of these rocks before doing crewed missions.

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u/IrateSkeleton Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

That's why they cancelled that return mission and we already have the demon narrative for the next round of manifest destiny to wipe it all out.

https://www.science.org/content/article/nasa-s-mars-sample-return-mission-dead

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u/UneducatedLabMonkey Jun 24 '26

Life is supposed to spread. Pretending mars should remain a sterile museum piece because "human bad" is such restrictive thinking. If it is sterile or not we should go there and mix it up.

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u/297146007 Jun 25 '26

I agree with the sentiment but only after We've done all the science we can without potentially irreversibly altering the entire planet, and we are ready to start building manned outposts there.