The co-founder and president of the Mars Society, Robert Zubrin, told CNET in an interview Friday that microbial life may still exist on Mars, despite the recently reported failure of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity to detect methane gas on the planet's surface. Methane is a respiratory byproduct formed in the absence of oxygen by certain microorganisms and is considered a strong possible sign that living organisms are present.
Zubrin, who has a doctorate in nuclear engineering and masters degrees in both aeronautics and astronautics from the University of Washington, is a long-time advocate of sending humans to Mars. In 1998, he founded the Mars Society, the largest nonprofit space advocacy organization in the world, with chapters in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, according to CNET.
While Zubrin admitted to a sense of disappointment at the report published Thursday in the journal Science concluding that Curiosity has yet to detect the presence of methane gas, he said that doesn't mean there's no methane on the Red Planet. It only means there isn't any methane in the relatively small area traversed by the rover so far. Moreover, Zubrin said, it's unlikely methane will be discovered on the Martian surface. Rather, it's more likely to be found in ground water.
"Mars was warm and wet on its surface during its first billion years and then it became cold and dry and not hospitable to life. I think any Martian organisms who lived on the surface at that time have retreated underground," Zubrin told CNET, adding that finding these organisms will require the presence of human explorers.
When asked what he thought life on Mars will look like, Zubrin said a big question would be whether or not the organisms were similar to those on Earth. If so, the possibility exists that life was transferred from our planet to Mars by passing meteorites. On the other hand, if it turned out Martian organisms were more primitive than terrestrial bacteria, it could mean life began on Mars and was later transported to Earth. Alternatively, Zubrin explained, finding life in Martian groundwater that was fundamentally different from that on Earth would suggest "two separate genesis events in one solar system."
Zubrin lamented what he described as NASA's lack of a coherent direction, even though the space agency has the technical ability to send humans to Mars in 10 years.
"NASA doesn't have a goal," Zubrin told CNET. "This is a serious problem. A NASA without a goal may easily find itself cut to pieces because it's difficult to ask for money when it's not clear why you're asking for it." He then added: "NASA better get its head together and propose a plan. I don't think people want to have a human spaceflight program that just goes up and down from the International Space Station."
