LastJune,NASA’sCuriosityrover
detectedsurprisinglyhighamounts
ofmethaneintheMartianatmosphere.
At 21 partsperbillionofmethane,it
wasnowhereclosetothelevelsseen
onEarth,butit wasenoughtohave
peopleaskthetantalizingquestionagain.
Is therelifeonMars?Onourplanet,
methaneis producedbymicrobes
calledmethanogensorruminants
likecows.However,it canalsostem
fromgeothermalreactions,which
havenothingtodowithbiologyor
livingorganisms.
Addingtothemysteryis thefactthat
thisisn’tthersttimemethanehasbeen
detectedonMars.In2013,theCuriosity
roverdetecteda similarspikeinmethanePHOTOSSPACEXCAN WE BECOME A
MULTI-PLANET SPECIES?
levels, a nding corroborated by a new
analysis of old readings from Mars
Express, an orbiting spacecraft
built by the European Space Agency.
What’s interesting is that these surges
in Martian methane appear to be
seasonal, following the rhythm of the red
planet’s seasons. Furthermore, it only
takes a few centuries – a blink of an eye in
geologic time – for methane to be broken
down by sunlight or chemical reactions,
which means that this methane is
relatively new.
But as scientists scramble to analyze
existing data and collect more precise
measurements in order to determine the
source of this methane, some of us on
Earth are instead looking to take life toMars itself. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has
gone on record as saying that an
off -planet colony is humanity’s best
hope of coming back from what he thinks
is the high possibility of a nuclear war or
some other cataclysmic event.
With NASA having fallen so far from
the heady rush of the Apollo days and
the Moon landing, it often seems like
progress in space today is in the hands of
billionaires and private space companies
like SpaceX and Blue Origin.
Musk in particular is really impatient
and eager for progress. He wants to
be there on Mars in 2024, an entire
decade ahead of NASA’s planned 2034
arrival. But is NASA just slow, or is Musk
simply foolhardy?Mars valles marineris.Mars.Mars colony.38 HWM | AUGUST 2019