October 21, 2020

Life on Mars


Life on Mars
Could there already be life on Mars? Image by ESA & MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA via Wikimedia Commons

According to Russian astronaut Oleg Artemyev, there is life on Mars. And, he says, it was brought there by human beings.

During a teleconference at VDNKh organized by the Cosmonautics and Aviation Center, Artemyev said, “I think that, in fact, life already exists on Mars, and it was most likely brought by us. Because these rovers, these stations that flew to Mars - no matter how we clean them and no matter their quarantine, they still brought the simplest microorganisms with them… And despite the fact that Mars does not have terrestrial conditions, these microorganisms survived and will begin to evolve.”

Artemyev also mentioned an experiment conducted on the Russian segment of the International Space Station that proved that microorganisms can survive in outer space. He predicts that when people do finally make it to Mars, there will already be some type of life form that is “very similar to that on Earth, but already more adapted to the conditions of Mars.”

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