The search for life on Mars has fascinated scientists for decades, but was a serious set-back decades ago?
This is a theory a scientist has put forward, alleging that NASA may have unintentionally destroyed life on the Red Planet in the 1970s.
Astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch, from the Technische Universität Berlin, believes this might have happened.
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In 1976, NASA’s Viking 1 mission involved two spacecraft that landed on the surface of Mars to conduct experiments involving mixing water and nutrients with samples collected from the planet’s soil.
It was believed at the time that life on Mars would function in a similar way as it does on Earth by relying on liquid water to survive.
Despite the findings apparently hinting at the possibility of life on Mars, Space.com reports that the results from this study were likely a false positive.
Schulze-Makuch suggests the experiments from NASA’s Viking 1 might have found life on Mars and unintentionally killed it with its water-based experiments.
The expert argues life on Mars may rely on salt deposits in a similar way to organisms that live in the driest locations on Earth, such as microbes in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
In a commentary piece for the journal Nature, Schulze-Makuch wrote: "In hyperarid environments, life can obtain water through salts that draw moisture from the atmosphere.
"These salts, then, should be a focus of searches for life on Mars."
"The experiments performed by NASA’s Viking landers may have accidentally killed Martian life by applying too much water.”
The hypothesis goes against NASA scientists made in the 1970s that life needs liquid water in order to survive.
Schulze-Makuch added: "If these inferences about organisms surviving in hyperarid Martian conditions are correct, then rather than ‘follow the water,’ which has long been NASA’s strategy in searching for life on the Red Planet, we should in addition follow hydrated and hygroscopic compounds — salts — as a way to locate microbial life.
The space expert also put forward an idea of using simple table salt to create a brine in which ‘certain bacteria thrive’. This concept could be roughly applied to life on Mars as well.
When speaking to Space.com, he said: “The main salt on Mars appears to be sodium chloride. Which means this idea could work.”
NASA, and Elon Musk, are pushing forward with plans to land humans on Mars as the search for aliens continues.
Gregory Robinson