"If Terraforming Mars Awakened Something?" Topic

If there was dormant life on Mars, do you think it would be merely bacterial, or do you think we could end up waking up something more interesting, like arthropods or something new?

Think of the gaming possibilities!

CC

Maybe the Canal Builders will return from their underground complex.

Or one of the Great Old Ones would awaken.

I think that "Something on Mars that should not have been disturbed has been awaken and we are now all under threat" is a great classic sci-fi starting point.

As for a game, you could pretty much take any alien you want and have them be the awakened one. My choice would be the Great Old Ones from HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu related works.

Isn't that what the movie "Ghosts of Mars" is about? Really fun movie. Excellent sets. Really want to build that Mars mining town as a table.

IT is already awake on Mars…..!

Ever wonder about all those "failures" of the Mars probes? That's not coincidence you know (unless NASA and the Soviet space programs really HAVE been producing consistently bad equipment.)

If a lander is bigger than a shoebox, it's toast.

And when the Martians eventually invade US, let's hope that we can convince them that we make good pets….

I gotta put in another vote for a great old one appearing and enslaving us all! Runh while you till can!

JT

Anyone watch Babylon 5? There were Shadow vessels buried beneath the surface of Mars from the last war 1000 years in the past…

Fools!

The wreck of the Volksraumschiff Germania lies on the surface of Mars. Within are the mummified remains of Adolf Hitler and his still-living brain. He's guarded by Nazi Cyber-Zombies.

They're the ones who wrecked that bloke from the West Country's (you know, the guy with the mutton-chops) precious probe. He was really upset, almost in tears. Poor lamb.

Everybody knows that!

Zephyr1 really does make you wonder. Tech from the 1960's could get a lander to mars. Plus we are 12-1 on missions to the moon. Can land an object on a comet, fly past saturn and land things on its moons. Yet anything that tries to map the surface of mars from orbit gets lost??? Pictures taken of the face on mars were done with modern equipment. Yet the resolution was set lower than the equipment used back in the 1970's???? I'm the first one to question aliens from mars stuff. Yet I question more why NASA seems to have such a poor results with missions to mars yet such a high success with missions every where else in our system????

"Ghosts of Mars" was supposed to be the "Warzone" movie. Target games went belly up and John Carpenter still made the movie. He just gave it a more generic twist, leaving out the various corporations from Warzone, but did keep the cartel. I love this flick!

Ironwolf, the images of Cydonia on mars were taken with a pixel resolution many times that of the original imagery. Spirit and Opportunity are still active, in spite of having gone over 3 times their projected mission length. It turns out that winds clear away dust from their solar panels, allowing them to constinue exploring. A few probes have failed, yes – but then, so did a lot of probes in the earlier space era. The failure rate is hardly irregular, and can., perhaps, be better attrributed to diplomatic and bureaucratic pressures than anyhting preventing our probes from operating on Mars. :)

As a small side plug, check out badgeofblood.com – it's a Half-Life 2 mod, one I'm working on, and it takes place on Mars. It also involves revolution and a look at extreterrestrial warfare… :)

-A.

'Ghosts of Mars'….Doom, and what was that recent scifi channel thing about 'cat-eyed' martians???…Then we have War of the Worlds…(NOT the TC version)…the 50's and recent 'HG Wellsian' version…Mission to Mars, Red Planet(val kilmer version)…Total Recall…etc..

Yes, Mars has 'eaten' several probes…like the Polar lander/two penetrators, Beagle…etc..US had one that exploded almost in orbit and another that due to metric/standard 'misunderstanding'…obediently did aero-braking 20-someodd miles BELOW the lowest survivable altitude for such an attempt…(Glad they didn't do that way at Jupiter in 2010!!! would have been a much shorter movie)…

There was another scifi channel movie where the martians? sent one of our VIKINGS back…with a replicating life-form on it…to get us to STOP 'invading' their planet with PROBES???!!! (now THERE's a concept…Earthers thinking THEY 'own' Mars????)

From John Carter of Mars to WOW to Mission to Mars…we've always had a 'love/hate' relationship with our 'sister planet'…(Venus lost it's 'allure' as sister planet when we realized it wasn't a swamp world…just a very, very hot oven filled with sulfuric acid and co2)…Though I did enjoy and still do, 'First Spaceship to Venus' as a more 'realistic' trip to Venus than some.

I hope to get the Mars Outpost cardstock 'kits/pdf's?' sometime…for use with SST/Doom, etc…(and to add to my infinite piles of projects I'm 'in the middle of')…because it just looks 'neat'. I think that we really don't KNOW about Mars…not because we CAN'T…but 'dreams die hard'…

If Mars is really ends up being only a 'rusted desert'…that once had some water on it from a couple dozen comet impacts…I think we'll really be 'sad'…as another 'childhood fantasy'…(aka Easter Bunny, Great Pumpkin, Tooth Fairy, the Boogieman and Kris Kringle) will 'bite the (RED) dust'…*sigh*

I hope that DOESN'T happen in my lifetime….

Live forever, Apes…

Lt DWW….oooh, GHOSTS of MARS???!!! Might be 'bug activity'…we'd better do a quick recon after we take care of the Pluto situation!

Autochton, but remember, Spirit and Opportunity have lasted this long partly because "something" is cleaning the solar panels every night. Maybe those little white mice who get together ahead of time and decide which way to run in the scientists' mazes are actually from Mars? Maybe NASA just hasn't noticed their tracks in the dust? :)

JVidlak wrote, "'Ghosts of Mars' was supposed to be the 'Warzone' movie. Target games went belly up and John Carpenter still made the movie."

This is the first I've heard of that. Where did you hear this?

"Ironwolf, the images of Cydonia on mars were taken with a pixel resolution many times that of the original imagery. Spirit and Opportunity are still active, in spite of having gone over 3 times their projected mission length. It turns out that winds clear away dust from their solar panels, allowing them to constinue exploring. A few probes have failed, yes – but then, so did a lot of probes in the earlier space era. The failure rate is hardly irregular, and can., perhaps, be better attrributed to diplomatic and bureaucratic pressures than anyhting preventing our probes from operating on Mars. :)"

Awwwww what do you know? You can prove or disprove any nonsense when you use silly things like facts and evidence!

"Maybe the Canal Builders will return from their underground complex."

Thank you, Earthlings, for making our ancient home livable again. No get off!

Edit: Now get off.

"The failure rate is hardly irregular, and can., perhaps, be better attrributed to diplomatic and bureaucratic pressures than anyhting preventing our probes from operating on Mars."

Diplomatic pressures? We have diplomats on Mars? Or did they send ambassadors here? CNN News never told me any of this! Tell us more.

" or do you think we could end up waking up something more interesting, like arthropods or something new?"

The Mysterons.

Fascinating to ponder whether Mars was like earth once. Not so far fetched. We may be going back to our home?

Hitlers brain can't be up there!! I know what happend, I've seen that well known historical documentary /drama……..

HELLBOY!

Hitler had several clone copies made of his brain.

His true consciousness is stored on a massive computer what fills a whole room (one of the old kind with valves, flashing lights, wheels, cogs, ticker-tape and what-not) in a secret underground base somewhere in Paraguay.

Everyone knows that!

Didn't the japanese launch one of the monsters that ravaged tokyo in the 50's and 60's to Mars? The turtle with the Rocket legs, maybe? We shouldn't even think of going to Mars until we come up with a plan to deal with giant monsters, unless we can convince Godzilla to work in the space program.

You are full of interesting scenarios today cacique, bravo!

Andy,

This info was given in the Target magaizine. I'll try to find the issue number when I get home.

Thane: Gamera was the turtle with the rocket legs. Gamera, friend to all children! It's Gamera! Get the camera!

"The wreck of the Volksraumschiff Germania lies on the surface of Mars. Within are the mummified remains of Adolf Hitler and his still-living brain. He's guarded by Nazi Cyber-Zombies."

I thought the Nazis had secret bases deep within the Earth and flew flying saucers out of holes in the poles…

Now that's just crazy talk.

Assuming Mars had water long enough for life to develop, and the argument about the water is now that, as it certainly did, anything that evolved to suit those conditions would have long since perished; even bacterial spores would not have survived the immensly long time since the planet dried off from photodissasociation.

Th echnaces htat some lifeforms of a low level of complexity surviving and adapting to the conditions now extant are pretty good, given the first assumption; Whether they would be awakened or destroyed by human activity is up for debate. It is barely possible that these organisms would be larger than bacteria….But as for conflict? Possibly they might become the Mars equivalent of dust mites with all the concommitent allergy issues we have with the Earthly counterparts. Any bacteria might have a pathogenic effect in humans, though it's possible that our biology would be far too dissimilar for that to happen, unless the bacteria created a toxic condition in humans rather tahn actually prey on our bodies.

Only way to tell is to go looking with at least telepresent rovers.

Billions of vicious paramecia screaming for blood…

"Ironwolf, the images of Cydonia on mars were taken with a pixel resolution many times that of the original imagery. Spirit and Opportunity are still active,

This guy seems to disagree with you on the imagery.
link He has a lot more degrees than me so who am I to argue. Spirit and Opportunity are not mapping mars from orbit. those are small rovers on the planet. Mars orbital missions are repeatedly failing yet other NASA missions are not.

And this guy seems to disagree with pretty much everything Hoagland says:
link

My money's on mr. Plait in this issue (-;)

—-

Vaguely on the subject, one fairly plausible way how complex life could still survive on Mars is presented in Greg Bear's Moving Mars. Some other science in the book is pretty outré tho. Nevertheless, a recommendable read.

An interesting theory I read somewhere says that Mars is missing a kilometer or two of it's surface on one side of the planet. (For a visual, think of an orange that's been half peeled.) Apparently a meteor slammed into one side, and caused the opposite surface to be blasted out into space.

(My theory) If Mars did have an ocean at one time, and the above happened (and all that water was sent into space), it might explain where the "40 days & nights" of rain came from in the Bible. (Meaning, as the water spiraled toward the sun due to gravitational attraction, Earth just happened to pass through it.)

I have the answers to many of your questions on my site link you'll find a single image from the beagle probe in the gallery before it stopped transmitting as well as a far better shot of the cydonian 'face' that clears up the mystery once and for all. The webcomic has an explanation for why many probes have failed and you might find some inspiration in the series of stories in the 'propaganda' section some of which are set on Mars during the early days of human exploration… particularly the most recent piece with it's rather odd title The Choir of Rudolph Messner, though you will probably want to read Dehydration and The Wind Sage first…. MUHAHaHaaaaaaaaaaaa *cough*

"Terra form" Mars? Hel, they can't even terreform the desertified areas on earth. What chance of pretty pot plants a couple of million miles away?

Neat concept though:

picture
link

CC

Bugs

"Bugs"

Starship Troopers might become a reality then! And on a relatively close world.

CC

Or maybe find giant black spider-like ships . . .
picture

CC

Awaken something? the planet is already covered with life, it's just that we don't have the sensor equipment to register the type of life it is. We look to find 'Earth' type life but what is living on Mars defies all Earthly description and needs a whole new approach to detect it.

'Not life as we know it'….

Well, we've gotten SOME idea of how 'adaptable' life can be on JUST the Earth alone…from symbiotic lichen/bacteria living just INSIDE pourous? rocks in dry antarctic valleys to 'extremophiles' living in boiling, extremely acidic water…to tube-worms near 'smokers' on the bottom of the ocean..in absolute darkness/under extreme pressure and based on sulfur, etc???

It would NOT take that much 'imagination' on our part…to figure out that if life can survive, even flourish under such EXTREME variations just on earth, that the same 'diversity' could be found on the surface/in the rocks/under the surface, etc of Mars…(or the oceans of Europa, clouds on Venus, upper atmosphere of Jupiter, inside comets etc???)…

And our 'definition' of life, (like 'intelligence')…may have to 'change' along the way as well.

One of the instruments 'cut' from the VIKING probes…was called the 'Wolfe trap'…(if you've seen Carl Sagan's COSMOS series…you know the whole story)…but basically, it was a simple 'test' and had been developed in the antarctic…(in conditions NOT that totally different than could be found on Mars)…and all the 'life' would have had to have done is 'multiply'/grow'..on it's own…as it would have normally…under it's home conditions…

Maybe we're looking 'too hard' and not seeing the 'forest for the trees'? If you look at some photos of locations on earth…(even from orbit)…you could believe that it was just another 'lifeless planetary body'…The sloping sides of Mauna Kea volcano, up where the Observatories are set, looks a LOT like surface of mars…as do some of the dry antarctic valleys (which get moisture…once or so every hundred years???) or the 'Dead Sea'…or near Malta…(where they filmed the Martian Chronicles?)…Or where the movie 'Red Planet' was filmed????

As to the 'Old ones'…Cthulu mythos…(they still might be hiding in Antarctica…near the active volcano Mt. Ebrus for 'warmth' in their hibernation state)…there are still depths of the ocean unexplored…immense caverns yet to be 'spelunked'…distant, unexplored 'pockets' of jungle or mountain passes…that have not been 'touched' by man…yet?…Caverns/caves on the moon???

Who knows??? Are there 'THINGS better left alone' OUT there??? Undoubtedly. Will we go poking our noses in where they don't belong/learn things MAN was not meant to know…(more than likely)…and will we SURVIVE it???

I think I'd like to 'role-play it'…rather than LIVE it…but only time will tell…

Carpe' Tentacle Apocolypse:It came up the Loo…(soon to be a Major Motion Picture and X-box game for children under 8…

Sgt DWW

I just love this picture:

picture
picture
picture
link

Imagine all the critters that will re-awaken and make things interesting for any humans there at that time!

CC

link
and that's all anyone need to know ;)

LOL

CC

Earth conquered by toys. From Mars. How demoralizing.

I was going to say "Red Planet" with Val Kilmer, but DWW beat me. All I know is that if I ever go to Mars, I'm going to have a really good, strong suit, and never take my helmet off. Better yet, I'll just stay on Earth maybe.

Considering the chemical content of the soil samples our probes 'on site' have analyzed and the UV radiation bathing the surface….life would have to be 'pretty hardy' to survive current SURFACE conditions…(but not IMPOSSIBLE, based on what we've seen in some of Earth's EXTREMOPHILES)…

Especially if life started during 'friendlier' epoc and evolved as conditions changed…

There are bacteria/fungus 'symbiots' that live just 'below' the surface of rocks in the dry valleys of Antarctica where inside the porous rock…they support each other and yet are shielded from cold, etc…

But any kind of life on Mars…would be 'hardy' in one sense or another…

I don't think the question is…'will we find life on Mars' as much as what KIND(S) of life WILL we find…and will any of it be 'advanced/intelligent/sentient'??? deep underground…or 'in extreme hybernation'???

Images from our probes show that something 'liquid' has caused terrain changes in last couple years..so some 'water'? is present…but how much…where…how widespread?

Will it be bacterial/slime-molds…underground 'worms' and such??? or MORE???

I would be very, VERY 'surprised' if there was NO life…(that we could recognize as such)…on/inside Mars at all…or NEVER was…(whether or not it still exists in current times…)

We will find out…sooner or later…the questions may be bigger than the answers though…and we may wish we hadn't ASKED???

Sgt DWW

"IT is already awake on Mars…..!
Ever wonder about all those "failures" of the Mars probes? That's not coincidence you know (unless NASA and the Soviet space programs really HAVE been producing consistently bad equipment.)"

Like these?

picture
picture
picture
picture
picture
picture
picture

CC

I think this was the first image captured:

picture

CC

I hate how some of those link just disappear after a short while. Oh, well.

CC

In the (fairly horrible) movie Armageddon,the shuttles and vehicles were orignally for a Mars mission.
My questions are:-
Why did the ground vehicles have a 20mm rotary cannon?
Why were the shuttles covered in Titanium armor?
Where the nukes add-on cargo or part of the original mission load-out?

Hmmm. Interesting.

I guess they were expecting a rough mission to Mars!

CC