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The Scientific, Practical, and Cultural Implications of Discovering Life in Our Solar System

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The Scientific, Practical, and Cultural Implications of Discovering Life in Our Solar System Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop 2017 (LPI Contrib. No. 1989) 8163.pdf “BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR”: THE SCIENTIFIC, PRACTICAL, AND CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF DISCOVERING LIFE IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. J. D. Rummel, SETI Institute, Moun- tain View, CA 94043, USA Introduction: The ‘Search for Life’ is, for some from Mars were brought to Earth for scientific analy- in the planetary science and astronomy communities, sis. That was the first time that Mars life (seemingly, as much a marketing strategy as it is a serious scien- the spore of a small lichen ) was seen. Unfortunately, it tific pursuit. Astrobiologists are in it for the critters, was judged by the sample analysis/biohazard team to but many others are happy to have the “life” brand be one of the numerous contaminating organisms from speak for them when it comes time to attract public Earth that had made the round-trip journey with the and private funding, but have not seriously contem- sample. The true significance of this organism, which plated the implications of a successful search for ex- shares DNA, RNA, and proteins with modern Earth tinct AND extant life The hypothesis that the presence organisms, was not understood at that time. of life on Earth indicates that there should be evidence It was the experience gained with degraded organ- of life elsewhere in this solar system (and beyond) may ics and organisms in the lunar-surface laboratory, not be directly relevant to the characterization of transported to Mars with the first human landings, that gamma-ray bursts or the measurement of the topogra- allowed scientists on Mars to conclusively prove that phy of Venus—but that is no condemnation. Sure, a the “lichen spore” first discovered in the robotically case can be made that such results are of interest to the returned Mars sample was actually a martian organism overall potential for life elsewhere in the universe, but no longer under containment on Earth. Those Mars it is clear that neither microbial or macro-life will have samples had been released from rigorous containment much to say about them. As such, it should be no sur- in the late 2030s after “false” positive indications of prise that many (if not most) space scientists—and a life were all that were detected in containment. surprising proportion of astrobiologists—have not fully Naturally, the US National Institutes of Health, the considered the implications of discovering life in our Centers for Disease Control, and the Environmental own planetary neighborhood. Protection Agency had linked their public obligations The following is a projection that looks back at to a major increase in funding, and even before the first those discoveries from the vantage point of 2050. human-crewed scientific expedition to Mars had re- Success Has a Thousand Fathers . and Many turned, they had recovered all of the robotically re- More Brothers and Sisters (Mars): Upon the return turned samples from investigator laboratories and had of humans to the Moon in the mid-2020s, in situ sam- asserted the right to do their duty by conducting their pling of former Apollo landing sites demonstrated new own quarantine of the Mars samples collected by the techniques for the use of highly sensitive instruments first human mission, as well as the human crew them- in a laboratory setting to search for biologically de- selves. By 2050, NASA and its international partners rived organic compounds (and dead organisms) to as- were trying to rearrange the scientific study of the ro- sess the contamination of the Moon by previous lunar botically collected samples, and to understand how spacecraft [1, 2]. Such studies, and the technology and future astrobiological studies of a Mars lichen could be technique-development that went with them, later pro- done under the conditions present in containment facil- vided a strong basis on which to build a similar crew- ities provided by the Earth’s public health authorities. tended laboratory on the surface of Mars in the mid- What’s a Universe Good For (Europa)? The 2040s. This turned out to be an important contribution space agencies involved in the first human mission to to the discovery of life on Mars, as the work in that Mars, as well as those that participated in the first ro- laboratory proved the existence of extant (and, of botic sample return mission, could be forgiven for their course, extinct) life there. Life on Mars has a rough acceptance of a negative result for two basic reasons. time of it between obliquity changes that favor warm- In the first place, the Mars lichen really did look a lot er, wetter conditions, so a large percentage of Mars life like Earth contamination, both genetically and struc- goes extinct on a regular (if extended) basis—but not turally, as might befit an organism whose ancestors everywhere on Mars, all at once. could have come from either planet. The second reason The really shocking news to the scientific commu- was that NASA was distracted elsewhere. The space nity, and (eventually) to the uninvolved public, was agency had become focused on Moon and Mars dis- that the work of the Mars surface laboratory proved tances and cruise times in the late 2010s and early that life on Mars was not first discovered in the mid- 2020s as it (and most of its international partners) had 2040s, but had been been “discovered” in the late signed agreements with commercial companies to con- 2020s, when the first robotically returned samples duct scientific exploration and (eventually) tourism as Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop 2017 (LPI Contrib. No. 1989) 8163.pdf partners. These agreements were forward-looking with Elsewhere, the discovery of two forms of life in our respect to the overall movement of humanity into own solar system had, by 2050, greatly expanded pub- space, but they focused attention, time, and money on lic interest in efforts to completely characterize the short missions that were intended to build up capabili- signs of life that could be read in the atmospheres of ties on nearby planetary surfaces. Accordingly, new planets orbiting other stars. Funding had grown, ac- missions to the outer planets and their satellites were in cordingly. While sending humans to Mars seemed to short supply. Imagine the dismay of strategic planners becoming more risky, should the Mars lichen have at NASA when their one-and-only (well-sterilized) nasty relatives. Clean rover technology with artificial Europa lander mission, launched in the early 2020s, intelligence and autonomy were considered to be safer discovered a second source of extraterrestrial life just and nearly as competent (with virtual reality video). beneath Europa’s icy surface. The solar system, rather The characterization of life on extrasolar planets than being cold, dry, and dead, was starting to feel a seemed both safe and possibly leading to a future real little crowded. Eventually, when the Mars-life realiza- estate boom, which for most people seemed as likely to tion was added, it would seem that the universe exists happen as their own move to Rakitu Island—highly for the express purpose of generating life. entertaining to consider an exotic change in locale, but Before the Mars discovery was understood, howev- not a practical necessity for most taxpayers. er, much time and effort in the early 2030s had been Solar System Values: From a cultural perspective, exerted to follow-up on the detection of this second and despite the fervent hopes of ethicists and political genesis of life from Europa. Despite a demonstration scientists, there were almost no major surprises regard- of the motility of cells recovered from melted Europan ing public attitudes after the discovery of life in our ice, the lander had conducted tests for DNA, RNA, and solar system. Government (e.g., NASA) had managed their degradation products, as well as for proteins and to “hide” the discovery of life on Mars for almost 20 lipids. There were equivocal results regarding proteins years. That the pertinent mistakes were made almost and lipids, but DNA and RNA had not been detected. 10 years earlier than the final sample-return mission None of the material detected by the Europa lander didn’t alter a skeptical view of the government and its had yet been returned to Earth, but what consumed the candor/competence. But the attitude that there could attention of NASA astrobiologists was the renegotia- (and should!) be aliens living in our solar system had tion of commercial agreements originally focused on been accepted by the vast majority of people with the missions to the Moon and Mars, but now being re- first Star Wars film. The fact that the new aliens were scheduled and modified to include licensing agree- likely to be microbes had turned out to be a large dis- ments regarding the possible commercial benefits of incentive for most of the public to care about them. Of the life discovered on Europa. The pharmaceutical course some were interested in the potential for phar- industry had joined the tourism and space resources maceuticals developed from this new life, and those companies in their enthusiasm for future spaceflight interested in such things were also interested in invest- opportunities. ing in such things, but by-and-large the public’s view Good News, Bad News: Some of those same of the universe would need to change only if a particu- agreements would have to be negotiated again in the larly clever alien were to come into the room and ei- late 2040s once it was discovered that the Mars lichen ther entertain or threaten, or sell real estate that some- was actually from Mars.
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