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NASA's Viking programme made history in 1975, when its twin landers became the first American spacecraft to successfully land on Mars. These landers carried out groundbreaking studies, collecting and analysing Martian soil samples for almost six years to establish whether microbial life existed on the Red Planet. However, a fascinating new idea proposes that the procedures utilized in these studies may have accidentally eliminated possible life on Mars.
Life Detection Methods Under Investigation
Dirk Schulze-Makuch, an astrobiologist at Technische Universität Berlin, hypothesized that the Viking missions may have met Martian bacteria but killed them by adding liquid water. In a Nature Astronomy editorial, Schulze-Makuch stated that Mars' hyperarid climate, which is drier than Earth's Atacama Desert, is likely home to lifeforms adapted to absorb moisture from atmospheric salts. These creatures, if present, might be killed by the addition of liquid water, as was done in the Viking studies.
Misguided Assumptions about Water
The Viking programme thought that Martian life, like life on Earth, would require liquid water. The tests involved adding water and nutrients to soil samples while measuring metabolic responses. While the early data indicated probable microbial activity, they were eventually discarded as inconclusive. Schulze-Makuch argues that these observations may instead reflect the extinction of lifeforms suited to Mars' dry climate. He has proposed a "follow the salts" technique, which focuses on discovering organisms that thrive in salt-rich humid settings.
Shifting the Search for Life
Schulze-Makuch drew comparisons with Earth's deserts, pointing to evidence of bacteria thriving in salt-rich environments via a process known as deliquescence, in which salts absorb moisture to form brines. To avoid depending on water-based assumptions, he proposes using several life-detection technologies, such as AI-assisted motility analysis and sophisticated microscopy.
This argument calls into question NASA's long-held belief that water is the key to alien life, and advocates for a more comprehensive exploration plan. While contentious, it sparks an important conversation about improving strategies for discovering life on Mars.
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