Mars covered in deadly toxic chemicals could scupper plans for human colonisation

[C C]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/science/mars-cov...s-10754663

EXCERPT: [...] When perchlorates are exposed to UV light whilst in environmental conditions mimicking those on Mars, they can kill bacteria commonly carried by spacecraft, according to the researchers. If these perchlorates are combined with iron oxides and hydrogen peroxide - both of which are also found on Mars' surface - they create a "toxic cocktail", resulting in a 10-fold increase in death of bacterial cells. The researchers said the findings have serious implications for human exploration of Mars, and the potential habitability of the planet. [...] On the upside, the results of the study have helped to alleviate concerns about Earth-based bacteria contaminating the surface of Mars, as it will likely be killed by Mars' toxic conditions....

MORE: http://www.mirror.co.uk/science/mars-cov...s-10754663

[Carol]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/science/mars-cov...s-10754663

EXCERPT: [...] When perchlorates are exposed to UV light whilst in environmental conditions mimicking those on Mars, they can kill bacteria commonly carried by spacecraft, according to the researchers. If these perchlorates are combined with iron oxides and hydrogen peroxide - both of which are also found on Mars' surface - they create a "toxic cocktail", resulting in a 10-fold increase in death of bacterial cells. The researchers said the findings have serious implications for human exploration of Mars, and the potential habitability of the planet. [...] On the upside, the results of the study have helped to alleviate concerns about Earth-based bacteria contaminating the surface of Mars, as it will likely be killed by Mars' toxic conditions....

MORE: http://www.mirror.co.uk/science/mars-cov...s-10754663

Bummer, a report like that will ruin the value of my real estate on Mars.

[Yazata]

Mars covered in deadly toxic chemicals that could scupper plans for human colonization

I'm not a bacterium! I'm a human being!!

(Don't believe what they say on that other science board... the E. coli cross-section is just my avatar.)

And as far as human beings are concerned, Mars' surface was already pretty hostile. (Little atmosphere, cold, dry...) I prefer hot summer evenings on Earth.

EXCERPT: [...] When perchlorates are exposed to UV light whilst in environmental conditions mimicking those on Mars, they can kill bacteria commonly carried by spacecraft

There's a possibility (no telling how large it is) that simple life once existed on Mars long ago but no longer does. There's a probably much smaller chance that a few surviving traces of it still exist even today.

If the degradation of the Mars environment was a slow and gradual change, any early hypothetical Mars bacterial analogues might conceivably have evolved to adapt to the changes. So they may be more resistant than Earth bacteria to this toxic cocktail.

And remember that there are some 40 known kinds of bacteria here on Earth that can metabolize perchlorates. (They love it!) They possess enzymes that reduce perchlorate to chloride in several steps, producing energy, oxygen and water in the process. Lots of good stuff (from our viewpoint).

What's more, perchlorate is a raw material for rocket fuel. Elon Musk plans to send humans to Mars with just enough fuel to get there one-way, but with rocket fuel synthesis equipment to make more return fuel from local feed-stocks.

With Earth's perchlorate-munching extremophile bacteria in mind, I think that if there were ever bacteria, archaea or something similar (but perhaps quite different) on Mars during the planet's more habitable early days, there's a remote chance that their distant descendants might still survive deep beneath the surface in cracks and voids in Martian rocks, living off the local minerals.

Life is found here on Earth in similar environments, miles below the surface in seemingly solid rock. There are speculations that endolithic microorganisms found living in Antarctic rock are the descendants of life that lived on that continent before it was overtaken by glaciation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endolith