Houston Announces "Life on Titan Could Have Been Seeded From Earth"

Scientists have announced at a conference in Houston that life on Saturn's moon, Titan could have been seeded by debris kicked up from asteroid impacts. According to the panspermia theory, life on Earth and Mars could have started from similiar means.



It's not that far a stretch, if you think about it.

Good article, Beachcoma...one just wonders, though; why is NASA constantly throwing us off the track by talking about "life here" and "life there", using valuable time and resources in a supposed "search for life", when they should be getting about the very vital business of putting human beings on other planets? Who really cares if they find microbes on Mars? I mean, surely somebody does care, but what possible good could it do us? It's like we're gonna find microbes on Titan, and ask them for the secret to their extradimensional hyperdrive, or something.

It's a deception. NASA could have had us permanently on the Moon by now, at least, if not Mars...instead they've been sending toy cars and more and more mapping satellites to Mars, the Moon, and the outer planets and their moons. We've mapped Mars, we've mapped the Moon. We don't need to do anymore mapping. And every time you hear "possible life" out of any NASA administrator's mouth, know you're being scammed. Why the subterfuge? Don't they WANT to put Americans in permanent, self-sustaining habitats offplanet?

And to think the Apollo missions were successful with only '60's-era mapping. Something's fishy here.



[edit on 18-3-2006 by Dyno25000]

I think this is a very egocentric view: stressing that life on Earth is seeding other worlds, implying they are not developing their own life independently from Earth.

It's almost as if NASA is trying to play down the possibility of life developing on other worlds. Why would they do that???
Hmmm.

[edit on 18-3-2006 by jupiter869]

And now NASA's whining about "private enterprise" taking more of a hand in space exploration, so as to "make it pay", i.e., by shipping Helium 3 or manufactured goods back to Earth for a profit. Listen, NASA; WE pay YOU. Your goal is to put Americans into space. No profit needed. You design the self-sustaining Lunar habitat, and use all your resources to put us up there. Don't worry about private enterprise.

Where does the money go? Where does the money go? Remote-control cars on Mars, so-far useless mapping satellites, huge salaries for desk-sitting swivel-chair spread-butt bureaucrats and fat-cat hand-shaking aerospace contractors.

[edit on 18-3-2006 by Dyno25000]

I don't think it's deception, I think NASA are doing their best using the limited resources they have considering most money seems to be plowed into offence, sorry I meant defence.
I think unless it means harvesting resources at a profit or having a strategic military advantage the Government are simply not that interested.

"I think unless it means harvesting resources at a profit or having a strategic military advantage the Government are simply not that interested...." (AgentSmith)

Yes, sir, but how has the Hubble telescope, Spirit and Opportunity, Mars and Moon mapping satellites, the ISS itself, et al ad nauseating useless dollar-hogging program, done anything for profit or national security...

I grant that military missions have been flown by the Shuttle, no argument; but I love the Shuttle and approve of it. What're those guys up there on the ISS doing right now? Floating around and re-storing stores that've been stored since they got there, and looking forward to doing a system check on the Canadarm next month...good grief.

I am not against pure science. But for the cost of all this pure science we could have had something which would advance Man In Space in a practical way long ago.

Listen; if there is no life on Titan, then life on Titan COULD NOT have been seeded from Earth. What is this misdirectional, obfuscatory, time-wasting BULLCRAP NASA's foisting on us?

Hey: Did we PAY those NASA bureaucrats to hold a press conference and tell us that the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs MIGHT have seeded life on Titan? Is THIS what we're paying them for? Or did they do it on their own time?



[edit on 18-3-2006 by Dyno25000]

Not sure why everyone is piling on NASA on this one. NASA is not even mentioned in the article, just a major scientific conference where a bunch of ideas and theories are bounded about.

NASA's been totally delinquent since President Kennedy's mandated Apollo missions. First we were distracted by the Shuttle, which supposedly was going to take us back to the Moon (Yes! Oh yes! The Shuttle was designed to take us back to the Moon!) and solve all our worries...then we were distracted with Mr. Reagan's Star Wars which soaked up billion$ that NASA could have used...then the ISS came along, and was a placebo to distract us into thinking we were getting something done, and all the while goofy useless little mapping-satellites and Mars rovers soaked up all the rest of the money.

Then came the International Space Station. A BRILLIANT ploy to keep us from doing what was needed, which was a permanent offplanet habitat.
People, someone is perpetrating a brilliant hoax to keep us from our heritage, which is to populate other planets. In space, power is free. In space, solar cells work perfectly well. We have the technology to design and build orbital platforms that can manufacture anything we need, for free. And a self-sufficient Lunar colony was practicable back in the '70's. Why ain't we done it? "Defense"? Against whom are we putting off our goals to defend against? The Chinese? The Russians?

"Defense" is the greatest scam perpetrated in the history of mankind. Think I'm paranoid? You haven't read enough early Heinlein.



[edit on 18-3-2006 by Dyno25000]

[edit on 18-3-2006 by Dyno25000]

Originally posted by Dyno25000
Yes, sir, but how has the Hubble telescope, Spirit and Opportunity, Mars and Moon mapping satellites, the ISS itself, et al ad nauseating useless dollar-hogging program, done anything for profit or national security...

You misunderstand me, I realise that using the money they get NASA do good things, I never dispute that, I 'm just pointing out they don't get anywhere near as much money as they deserve and that given the present priorities of those in power, unless NASA come up with a way to make a huge profit (I.e. efficient mining and transportation of natural resources), they still will receive less than they deserve.
I don't dispute they do the best with what they get however, and even with a Human mission - a robotic re-con mission would be invaluable, along with the more immediate informational benefits for a relatively low price.

Life on earth started from metorite impacts. Our water here on earth was from the meteors. Is it hard to believe that the water that seeded earth seeded others as well?

Originally posted by I See You
Our water here on earth was from the meteors.

Slight correction: the water came from comets and cometesimals. Meteors usually do NOT contain water.

The level of concentration at ATS has dropped...dramatically. What did this article have to do with NASA? I think the true colors of some of the lesser educated minds are being exposed.

The article was about a conference in Houston, not a NASA press release or a NASA conference.

MOD EDIT: Deleting harrasment of a fellow member.

[edit on 3/19/2006 by cmdrkeenkid]

Yes actually mateors DO contain water. Just do a quick search on meteors and water and ypu'll get all the links and info you need.

You're right, some meteors contain a bit of water. But I thought the bulk of the water that crashed from space onto the planet came from cometesimals? Isn't that more likely, since comets are mainly ice?

Also, if you do a search, you'll find the volcanic activity here on Earth billions of years ago contributed a much much larger quantity of water than meteors.

The amount of water contained within a meteor is miniscule compared to what is in a comet. Also comets have A LOT of amino acids, which are more commonly refered to as the building blocks of life. It is true that the majority of water on Earth has come from volcanism, but I still would like to believe that the amino acids primarily came from space.

That being said, despite NASA being mentioned an picked on, the probe that landed on Titan, Huygens, was an ESA probe. Yes, it was launched and carried aboard NASA craft, but that doesn't change much. Also, NASA has a very extensive Planetary Protection program to help prevent life from Earth ending up on other bodies of the Solar System.

Now, I have a question for those of you questioning NASA or any other space agency: Did you even read the article? From your posts it seems as if you did not, because the article is about ejecta from Earth (carrying some form of microbe) through space and to another body in the Solar System.

Not to drag this offtopic, but...

Originally posted by Dyno25000
NASA's been totally delinquent since President Kennedy's mandated Apollo missions. First we were distracted by the Shuttle, which supposedly was going to take us back to the Moon (Yes! Oh yes! The Shuttle was designed to take us back to the Moon!) and solve all our worries

The shuttle was not designed to take us to the Moon. It was designed to be an orbiter and nothing more. The original plan was to build the Space Station Freedom (which was scaled down significantly to what is now known as the ISS) and the shuttle was to bring people and supplies to the Station and from there other ships would go to the Moon and even Mars, but due to massive budget cuts in the 70's we got stuck with just a shuttle and a scaled down (and still incomplete) space station.

Then came the International Space Station. A BRILLIANT ploy to keep us from doing what was needed, which was a permanent offplanet habitat.

Like I wrote above. The original plan was to build the station to support off world bases. It was not a ploy to prevent us from doing so. So don't blame NASA, blame the US gov't for cutting the funds.

I know this is an old thread but it is something that has interested me for a bit and everyone always sais to post to an existing thread instead of creating a new one. With that being said, does anyone know if Titan actually has an atmosphere that would even remotely resemble Earth's that would allow for the developement of life similar to here on Earth? I only ask because I have read so many conflicting stories regarding this.