What can Martian meteorites tell us about extraterrestrial life? Martian meteorites Meteorites from Mars

At the beginning of December last year, we talked about the conclusions of scientists who came to the conclusion that life could very likely appear on Mars. In support of such amazing conclusions, they spoke about the presence of chemical elements generated by biological activity in a stone that they found... on Earth. According to experts, the Martian origin of the fragment discovered on July 18, 2011 is proven by its chemical analysis. “The rock contains extremely low levels of rare earth elements, which are characteristic of rocks on the surface of Mars,” they note in the published study. But how then could this stone from Mars get to us? Readers asked us the following questions:

— How could a stone of such small size be discovered on Earth? What mechanisms led to it leaving the Martian surface and reaching us? And vice versa, can a rock of N size from Earth end up on Mars?

— Please explain why Martian rocks fly away from the planet, contrary to all the laws of gravity, and fall to Earth?

— You say that the meteorite came from Mars. How could such a stone overcome the gravitational field of the planet? And can meteorites of terrestrial origin exist?

We asked these questions to Philippe Gillet of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, who was one of the study's co-authors. He explains it this way: “A relatively large object struck the Martian surface with sufficient force to throw fragments of Martian rock out of the planet’s atmosphere.” It's similar to how water splashes when you throw a stone into a pond.

Experts even have relatively accurate data on how strong an impact is required to throw rock fragments into space. “The speed of an object is proportional to the gravitational force of the planet,” explains Philippe Gillet. “We know that on Mars it is 8-10 kilometers per second. Based on this parameter, the scatter and the crystal structure of the rock, we can estimate the mass of the object that hit the Martian surface and even calculate the size of the crater it left.”

“We believe that launching a rock the size of the Tissint meteorite into space would require an object ranging from hundreds of meters to several kilometers in diameter to hit the surface of Mars,” he continues. As a result, the stones receive a powerful impulse and follow a ballistic trajectory that can take them beyond the gravitational field of Mars. Stones wander through space until they fall into the gravitational field of some other celestial body. While traveling through space, these rock fragments are subject to active bombardment by solar particles, from which they were previously protected by the planet's soil. “This stream of particles affects the substance and creates special isotopes that can be counted and thereby determine the total time the stone spent in space,” says Philippe Gillet. “The Tissint meteorite wandered for approximately 700 thousand years before reaching the earth’s surface.”

Fragments of earth rocks are also floating around in space.

If such mechanisms work on Mars, do they also work on Earth? In other words, is it theoretically possible to stumble upon pieces of our good old Earth that were thrown onto other planets after a meteorite hit? “Of course,” replies Philippe Gillet. Even if those rare studies of the surface of other planets have not yet shown this. But they certainly exist there, because this kind of event (an impact from a sufficiently large and fast-moving object to eject rock fragments into space) occurred more often on Earth than on Mars. In fact, everything depends on the mass of the planet: the larger the celestial body, the greater the force of attraction it exerts on objects in its surroundings.

And since the Earth's mass is ten times greater than that of Mars, it attracts more wandering space objects. “On Earth, a meteorite with a diameter of 100 meters falls approximately once every five centuries. A meteorite with a diameter of 5 kilometers hits Earth once every 10-50 million years,” says Philippe Gillet. For comparison, the meteorite that ended the age of dinosaurs on Earth 65 million years ago was 10 kilometers in diameter. “Such an event occurs once every 100-500 million years,” the scientist believes. After such an impact, a huge amount of earthly rock ended up in space...

Events

A rare Martian meteorite found in the Sahara Desert is unlike any other meteorite from the Red Planet. He contains 10 times more water than other meteorites.

The high concentration of water indicates that the rock came into contact with water on the surface of Mars about 2.1 billion years ago, when the meteorite likely formed.

The meteorite, the size of a baseball and weighing 320 grams, was officially named North West Africa (NWA) 7034 or unofficially "Black Beauty" is the second oldest of the 110 stones found from Mars, discovered on Earth.

Most of them were found in Antarctica and the Sahara, and the oldest Martian meteorite is 4.5 billion years old.

It is very similar to the volcanic rocks found on the surface of Mars by NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers.

Scientists believe that an asteroid or other large object collided with Mars, breaking off a piece of rock that fell into the Earth's atmosphere.

The NWA 7034 meteorite was donated to the University of New Mexico by an American who bought it in Morocco last year, and a series of tests confirmed that it came to Earth from Mars.

It is believed that from early times Mars was a warmer, wetter place, but it has lost most of its atmosphere and the water on its surface has disappeared. The planet became the cold, dry desert seen today.

The meteorite likely formed during a climate transition when the Red Planet was losing its atmosphere and surface water.

He contains relatively high water content: 6000 ppm, while other Martian meteorites contain about 200-300 ppm. In addition, it contains tiny carbon particles formed from geological, rather than biological, activity.

Photos of meteorites

Here are some photos of meteorites found on Earth and Mars.

The oldest Martian meteorite ALH 84001 4.5 billion years old was found in the Alan Hills of Antarctica in 1984.

Photo of an iron meteorite found by NASA's Opportunity rover on Mars. This first meteorite found on another planet, consisting mainly of iron and nickel.

Lunar meteorite, found in Antarctica in 1981. It resembles the rocks returned by the Apollo spacecraft from the Moon.

Martian meteorite- a rock that formed on the planet hit and was then expelled from Mars by the impact of an asteroid or comet, and finally landed on Earth. Of the more than 61,000 meteorites that have been found on Earth, 132 have been identified as Martian. These meteorites are thought to be from Mars because they have elemental and isotopic compositions that are similar to the rocks and atmospheric gases analyzed by the Mars spacecraft. On October 17, 2013, NASA reported, based on analysis of argon in the Martian atmosphere by the Mars Curiosity rover, that certain meteorites found on Earth that were thought to be from Mars were actually from Mars

The term does not apply to meteorites found on Mars, such as Thermal Scutum Rock.

On January 3, 2013, NASA reported that the meteorite, named NWA 7034(named "Black Beauty"), found in 2011 in the Sahara Desert, was determined to be from Mars and was found to contain ten times the water of other Mars meteorites found on Earth. The meteorite was determined to form 2.1 billion years ago during the Amazonian geological period on Mars

Story

By the early 1980s, it was obvious that the SNC group of meteorites (Shergottites, Nakhlites, Chassignites) were significantly different from most other meteorite types. Among these differences were younger ages of formation, different oxygen isotopic composition, the presence of aqueous tilt products, and some similarity in chemical composition to studies of Martian surface rocks in the 1976 Viking landers. Several workers suggested that these features implied the origin of the SNC meteorites from a relatively large superior authority, perhaps Mars (e.g. Smith and etc. and Treyman and etc.) . Then in 1983, various trapped gases were reported in impact-formed shergottite glass EET79001, gases that closely resembled those in the Martian atmosphere as analyzed by Viking. These trapped gases provided direct evidence for a Martian origin. In 2000, an article by Treeman, Gleason and Bogard gave an overview of all the arguments used to conclude the SNC meteorites (of which 14 were found at the time) were from Mars. They wrote, "There seems to be a small chance that SNCs are not from Mars. If they were from another planetary body, then it would have to be essentially identical to Mars, as is now understood."

Subdivision

As of January 9, 2013, 111 of the 114 Martian meteorites are divided into three rare groups of achondritic (stony) meteorites: shergottites (96), nakhlites (13), chassignites(2), and otherwise (3) (which includes the oddball Allan Hills meteorite 84001 usually placed within a certain "OPX group"). Consequently, Martian meteorites in general are sometimes referred to as SNC group. They have isotope ratios that are said to be compatible with each other and incompatible with Earth. The names come from the location of where the first meteorite of their type was discovered.

Shergottites

Approximately three-quarters of all Martian meteorites can be classified as shergottites. They are named after the Shergotty meteorite, which fell on Sherghati, India in 1865. Shergottites are igneous rocks of mafic to ultramafic lithology. They fall into three main groups, basaltic, olivine-phyric (such as the Tissint group found in Morocco in 2011) and lherzolitic shergottites, based on their crystalline size and mineral content. They can be categorized alternatively into three or four groups based on their rare earth element content. These two classification systems do not line up with each other, hinting at the complex relationships between the various source rocks and magmas from which shergottites formed.

shergottites appear to have crystallized only 180 million years ago, which is a surprisingly young age considering how ancient most of Mars' surface appears to be and the small size of Mars itself. Because of this, some have defended the idea that shergottites are significantly older than this. This "Shergottite Age Paradox" remains unresolved and is still an area of ​​active research and debate.

It has been shown that nakhlites were awash in liquid water approximately 620 million years ago and that they were expelled from Mars approximately 10.75 million years ago by an asteroid impact. They fell to Earth within the last 10,000 years.

A Martian meteorite recently discovered on Earth may be the missing link between the planet's warm, wet past and its cold, dry present.

A Martian meteorite recently discovered on Earth may be the missing link between the planet's warm, wet past and its cold, dry present. The rock, found in 2011 in Morocco, is part of a previously unknown class and could fill gaps in scientists' knowledge of the geological history of the red planet.

The meteorite, called NWA 7034, is very different from other rocks from Mars that have been studied by experts on Earth.

NWA 7034 contains about 10 times more water (about 6 thousand parts per million) than any of the 110 other known meteorites that fell to Earth from Mars. This suggests the meteorite may have come from the surface of the planet rather than from its depths, says planetary scientist Carl Agee of the University of New Mexico.

Previously studied Martian meteorites, known as SNC samples, apparently originate from a less explored part of the planet's landscape. Perhaps they broke off from Mars as a result of an asteroid impact in a certain region of the planet. But the most recent sample is more typical of the surface of Mars.

Experts believe that NWA 7034 is a fossil from a volcanic eruption on the planet's surface that occurred about 2.1 billion years ago. The meteorite was once lava that cooled and hardened. The cooling process itself may have been aided by water on the Martian surface, which ultimately left its mark on the meteorite's chemistry.

Scientists were also interested in the age of the meteorite. Most SNC samples date back to only about 1.3 billion years old, with the oldest meteorite being 4.5 billion years old. NWA 7034 represents the transition between the oldest and youngest Martian meteorite discovered on Earth.

“Many scientists believe that Mars was warm and wet early in its history, but that the climate changed over time,” explains Egi. The red planet eventually lost its atmosphere and became a cold, dry desert. The new meteorite belongs to the transition period between these extremes, making it an important find for scientists hoping to learn how the Martian climate changed.

Ega's findings are supported by data collected by Mars rovers and spacecraft orbiting the planet. The geochemical composition of the new meteorite exactly matches the composition of rocks analyzed by Mars rovers on the surface of the red planet.

Researchers confirmed the Martian origin of the meteorite using a method of exclusion and research that lasted as long as six months. Based on the age of the stone, they realized that it could not come from an asteroid - they are all much older than 2.1 billion years, with an average age of about 4.5 billion years.

"We knew he had to be from a planet," Agee says. Mercury was not among the possible options, since the composition of the volcanic meteorite did not match the composition of the surface of the planet closest to the Sun. Venus didn't come either. Scientists speculate that the surface of this planet is too dry for rocks containing water, like NWA 7034.

Mars turned out to be the only suitable option, and there is ample evidence of similarities to rocks studied during Mars missions.

Martian meteorite

In the summer of 1996, the news spread around the world: “Life has been discovered on Mars!” And although it later turned out that we were talking only about organic remains that were found on the surface of a meteorite that seemed to have flown to us from Mars, the sensation turned out to be serious. After all, if alien bacteria really exist, then, probably, fellow humans are somewhere nearby. After all, life on our planet also developed, starting with the simplest organisms.

That is why the sensational press statement made on August 7, 1996 by authoritative NASA experts had the effect of a bomb exploding in scientific circles. It said that traces of organic molecules were found on the ALH 84 001 meteorite, and that this pebble itself came to Earth from Mars 13 thousand years ago.

True, the head of the NASA research group, Dr. D. McKay, cautiously noted even then: “Many people probably won’t believe us.” And here he was, of course, right.

American scientists based their hypothesis mainly on four facts. Firstly, small inclusions, the size of a typographical point on this page, dotted the walls of cracks on the Martian meteorite ALH 84 001. These are the so-called carbon rosettes. The center of such a “point” consists of manganese compounds surrounded by a layer of iron carbonate, followed by a ring of iron sulfide. Some terrestrial bacteria living in ponds are capable of leaving such traces by “digesting” the iron and manganese compounds present in the water. But, as biologist K. Neilson believes, such deposits can also arise during purely chemical processes.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were also found in the meteorite - relatively complex chemical compounds that are often part of organisms or their decomposition products. The chemist R. Zeir, who worked with McKay, argued that these were the remains of decomposed once living organic matter. However, his colleague from the University of Oregon B. Simonent, on the contrary, points out that at high temperatures such compounds can arise spontaneously from water and carbon. Moreover, in some meteorites that fall on our planet from the meteorite belt that exists between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, researchers even discover amino acids and hundreds of other complex organic compounds used by living organisms, but no one claims that the asteroid belt is a breeding ground for life.

The third argument of enthusiasts is the discovery under an electron microscope of tiny droplets consisting of magnetite and iron sulfide. Some researchers, such as J. Kirschwink, a famous specialist in minerals, argue that the droplets are the result of the vital activity of bacteria. However, others, like geologist E. Schock, believe that similar forms can arise as a result of other processes.

The most heated debate was caused by the fourth piece of evidence presented by the NASA team. In the carbonate part of the meteorite, under an electron microscope, they discovered elongated ovoid structures several tens of nanometers long. Supporters of Dr. McKay believe that the fossilized remains of Martian supermicroscopic organisms have been found. But their volume is a thousand times smaller than the smallest terrestrial bacteria. “So it’s unlikely that these are the remains of life,” skeptics believe. “Rather, we are looking at ultra-small crystals of minerals, the unusual shape of which is due to their miniature size.”

Life in stone

Here our domestic researchers also intervened in the dispute. They pointed out that a few months before the hype began, Russian scientists made a similar discovery. Moreover, on a pebble that is older than the Earth, and therefore probably fell on it from space. However, none of the three - neither the director of the Paleontological Institute A. Rozanov, nor the professor of the Institute of Microbiology V. Gorlenko, nor the professor of the Institute of the Lithosphere S. Zhmur - made much noise. There were at least two reasons for this.

One of them was that similar finds had been made earlier, back in the 50s of the 20th century. And each time it turned out that “life in stone” was some kind of misunderstanding, an experimental error. So, in the end, a kind of “taboo” was imposed on this topic in Russian science - it was believed that such research was simply indecent for a serious scientist.

Nevertheless, frivolous, hooligan, if you like, scientific curiosity gets through to someone from time to time. And when Professor Zhmur showed his colleagues fragments of “heavenly stones” that he had obtained from the Australian Murchisson and the Kazakh Efremovka, the researchers could not resist looking at the samples through an electron microscope. And they discovered something unusual in the resulting photographs.

After much deliberation, they came to the conclusion that the microscope showed nothing more than fossilized fungi and cyanobacteria, which most people know as “blue-green algae.”

However, Kozma Prutkov also urged not to believe your eyes. If these formations look like the fossilized remains of bacteria, this does not mean at all that they are such. After all, it is known that there are inorganic forms that are very similar to traces of fossilized bacteria. This was once pointed out by Academician N. Yushkin, who described very peculiar secretions of the mineral kerite. He took them from a very ancient rock, which is about 2 billion years old. But similarity is not yet identity...

As proof of this thesis, one can recall at least the discovery that shocked the whole world more than 70 years ago. In 1925, in a quarry of a brick factory near Odintsovo in the Moscow region, a fossilized human brain was discovered, perfectly preserving all the details. Plaster castings from the amazing discovery were demonstrated at many international congresses and conferences with constant success. Many enthusiasts developed exciting hypotheses on the basis of this find, some said that before us are the remains of a certain alien who died during an expedition that visited the Earth during the Carboniferous period; others believed that we have evidence that civilization on Earth is now making at least a second round - people with such a developed brain once already existed on our planet... But in the end, the third ones turned out to be right - those who believed: before us is just a unique evidence of the play of nature. And indeed, decades later, geologists and paleontologists nevertheless proved the natural origin of the silicon nodule, which repeated the shape and structure of the human brain.

If such unlikely accidents are possible on our planet, then what can we say about the similarity in shape of the smallest crystals with bacteria?.. Moreover, B. Jakotsky and K. Hutchins from the University of Colorado determined by the isotopic composition of the carbonate part of the meteorite, in which Suspicious microformations were found that they arose at a temperature of about 250°C. And this, you see, is too much for any living creature - the most heat-resistant terrestrial microbes have so far been discovered only at temperatures up to 150°C...

By the way, about terrestrial microorganisms. Who can guarantee that during the 13 thousand years of its stay in Antarctica, this meteorite did not “pick up” some purely terrestrial microbes? In any case, J. Beyda from the Cripps Oceanographic Institute reported that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on Earth were more than once found, albeit in small quantities, in the ice of Antarctic glaciers, where ALH 84 001 lay for a long time. They apparently get there from atmosphere, the winds of which carry the products of combustion of fossil fuels throughout the planet.

Shall we wait until 2005?

American scientists tried to put an end to this dispute, having recently published an article in Science magazine, where they claim: the presence of traces of organic matter, as well as some strange structures and components on the meteorite is undeniable, but they are of purely terrestrial origin!

However, their publication only added fuel to the fire. In particular, British professor K. Filger hastened to declare that he flatly refused to recognize the validity of the Americans’ conclusions. In his opinion, meteorite organics still come from Mars. The red planet not only had, but also has bacterial life, he claims.

However, the authors of the article do not deny this possibility. They only emphasize that this Antarctic meteorite

does not support this hypothesis. It was in this spirit that one of the authors of the Science article, Dr. Warren Beck, spoke. And Professor Veida conciliatoryly concluded: “Let's wait until 2005! If the planned Mars mission brings back enough intact rocks to Earth, we may be able to answer the question of life on the red planet more definitively."

But again, not conclusively... After all, even if microbes are found there, the question will immediately arise: “Are they of earthly origin? Perhaps they were delivered to Mars by meteorites from Earth?..”

So again you have to make guesses and rack your brains. Such is, apparently, the nature of science. However, the number of supporters of the existence of life on Mars is constantly increasing.

According to the director of the Institute of Microbiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician Mikhail Ivanov, “life on Mars most likely continues today, but not on the surface of the planet.”

Justifying his position, the scientist explained: “Earth and Mars are twin planets, formed from approximately the same cosmic material. This means that, to a certain extent, the processes and stages of planet formation should have taken place in a similar way. And there is direct geological or morphological evidence for this. By this I mean the developed systems of volcanoes and river beds discovered on Mars. This suggests that on early Mars the conditions of formation and the first stages of the planet’s life were similar to those on Earth. And although the subsequent history of the two planets went differently, there are no fundamental prohibitions on the existence of ancient life on Mars.”

So, there was life on Mars. “Firstly, these are the results of studying meteorites that flew to Earth from Mars 1,” the scientist noted. - In several of them, a very interesting system of minerals was discovered, formed at a late stage of the hydrothermal process. Researchers even managed to reconstruct the conditions under which they fell out.

Moreover, these conditions of low-temperature hydrothermal systems are extremely favorable for the development of at least two groups of anaerobic microorganisms. One of them is methane-forming bacteria, which, in the process of life, ensure the fractionation of stable carbon isotopes: the light isotope is concentrated in methane and organic matter of biomass, and the heavy isotope is concentrated in the residual, unused carbon dioxide of the planet. This distribution of isotopes was found both in carbonate minerals and in the organic matter of Martian meteorites. Moreover, at the temperatures existing in the environment, such fractionation of isotopes occurs only biologically... From my point of view, this is unambiguous biogeochemical evidence that microorganisms were developing in this system,” the academician emphasized. - I think that this process can continue now. Mars is a planet that is cooling, but not completely cooled, and such low-temperature hydrothermal ecosystems are able to survive on it, going deep into its surface.” According to Ivanov, “life on Mars should be sought in the areas of the youngest volcanic systems.”

Foreign experts also agree with the opinion of our scientist. “A microscopic crystal in a Martian meteorite found several years ago in Antarctica could only have been formed by bacteria and is evidence of primitive life that existed on the red planet,” came the conclusion of American scientists from the Lyndon Johnson Space Research Center in Houston, Texas.

A crystal with magnetic properties is called magnetite. "I'm convinced it provides evidence of ancient life on Mars," says astrobiologist Katie Thomas-Keprta. “And if there was once life there, then we can assume that there is life there today.”

Thomas-Keprt's findings are supported by Imre Friedmann, a biologist at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffettfield, California. According to him, there are bacteria on Earth that produce magnetite. At the same time, they form chains of crystals surrounded by a membrane. When studying meteorite samples under an electron microscope, both fossilized chains and the membrane are visible. “We are observing chains that could only be formed biologically,” the American scientist emphasizes. - On Earth, some types of bacteria living at the bottom of lakes produce magnetite, using it as a kind of navigational tool. Magnetic crystals serve as a “compass” for them, helping them navigate while moving.”

Are we the grandchildren of Martians?

An even more radical point of view on this matter is expressed by full member of the New York Academy of Sciences Vladilen Barashenkov and his associates.

“We have obtained evidence of life on Mars,” he says. “In any case, several hundred million years ago, primitive microorganisms existed there, and possibly more complex forms of life.”

What happened to them then?

Mars is now a very uncomfortable planet for life. There is little air - near the surface of the planet it is a hundred times less than on Earth. And even that is 95 percent carbon dioxide, and the rest is nitrogen and argon. There is practically no oxygen and water vapor. Martian temperatures are very cold. Even at the height of summer, when the sun's rays heat up the sands and rocks covering Mars the most, their temperature barely reaches one degree, and the rest of the year the planet is frozen much more severely than in the depths of our Antarctic...

However, living organisms have a surprisingly high degree of adaptation to external conditions. On our planet, in soil frozen through and hard as stone, they hibernate - an almost lifeless state with extremely slow biochemical processes. In arid deserts, they learned to obtain water by decomposing the organic matter of the hard, dry food they ate. Some of them thrive under fantastically enormous pressures at the bottom of the ocean trenches... One can assume that Martian animals, if they exist there, are no less inventive. Well, microorganisms are simply record holders for survival. On Earth, bacteria live in boiling water from geysers, in ice and at high altitudes. Some do not need oxygen at all.

The landscape of the surface of Mars suggests that once upon a time, rivers flowed along it and conditions existed for the emergence of life similar to that on Earth. Martian life could have originated in the depths of the planet, in its warm geothermal waters, all these are hypotheses and assumptions, and two spacecraft launched by the Americans and descended to Mars back in 1976 did not find any signs of living matter and no traces of organic matter at all. although the accuracy of the instruments was high and they would have been able to detect organic matter if its share in the Martian soil was only one billionth part.

All the more striking is the package from Mars - several rocky pieces from its surface, recently found in the glaciers of Antarctica. In one of them, not only traces of organic matter were found, but also conglomerates, lumps and sticks, very similar to the remains of primitive microorganisms that lived on Mars several hundred million years ago.

Now it remains to find out what happened to Martian life - it died when Mars, unable to retain the blanket of atmosphere that warmed it, began to cool, took refuge in the warmer bowels of the planet, or in some form, perhaps very unusual for us, still exists on the Martian surface .

Or maybe she simply migrated to us on Earth? This is exactly the hypothesis that science fiction writer A. Kazantsev propagated in his books. He saw proof in the enormous explosion that occurred at the beginning of the century on the Tunguska River and was clearly of cosmic origin. It is believed that this was the fall of a large meteorite or a comet arriving from afar. But for some reason there were no fragments left after the explosion. Maybe it was a rare case of the fall of an icy meteorite or a snow comet, the remains of which simply melted? Some scientists adhere to this hypothesis... But in too many ways the Tunguska phenomenon differs from what usually happens when a celestial body collides with the earth's surface, and this still gives rise to speculation and controversy. The writer Kazantsev believed that it was a crashed Martian ship. Little substantiated, but very beautiful hypothesis!

However, if in fact, as the Antarctic meteorite tells us, life was preserved on Mars in ancient times, at least in its primitive forms, then climate change on the planet should have contributed to a more rapid evolution of living structures struggling for their survival. Climate change has continued for many millions of years - time is quite sufficient for the development of complex life forms and for their adaptation to changing conditions.

It is possible that the emergence of intelligent life forms and their creation of a technical civilization occurred on Mars much earlier than on Earth. And who knows, maybe one. One of the ways the Martians adapted was indeed the emigration of part of the population to Earth. If this is so, then their blood flows in us, and our genetic codes should be similar to those that will be found in ancient burial sites on Mars. After the discovery of the “Martian parcel”, such a hypothesis no longer seems as incredible as it did at the time when Kazantsev wrote his novel.

One can, of course, ask, why don’t archaeologists find traces of the high technology of settlers who arrived on Earth? But it’s more likely that there were not so many immigrants, and, finding themselves in the difficult conditions of the new planet, far from the technical capabilities of their homeland, they had to start everything, as they say, from scratch. And the resettlement took place so long ago that the few traces of it were simply erased, remaining only in our genes.

The next launch of an unmanned reconnaissance aircraft to Mars is expected in 2002. He will bring us something...

If there is no life...

Despite the assertion of most scientists that there is no longer life in our solar system, humanity continues to believe in the beautiful fairy tale that apple trees will bloom on Mars. In any case, today enthusiasts are already working on plans to visit and then explore the “red planet.” And they've already come up with something!

On US Independence Day, July 4, 2012, a rocket capsule with six astronauts on board will land on Mars. For the first time, a human foot will set foot on the surface of the red planet.

For about 60 days, the first earthly settlers will live in two rooms equipped for housing, shaped like flat tin cans. Rovers will be parked near them - vehicles necessary for exploring areas remote from the base of the fourth planet of the solar system.

When the mission ends, the international crew will extract fuel from the atmosphere, fill it into a rocket capsule, ascend into orbit, where they will transfer to the spacecraft, and head back, greeting the replacement ship that meets them halfway.

This is what the project for space travel and exploration of the Martian expanses, prepared by NASA experts, looks like in general terms. As Richard Birendzen, an astronomer from an American university, noted, “the emergence of such a project is evidence of increased work in this direction.”

The core of the project, which NASA experts have been working on for four years, is maximum savings in its implementation. In 1989, by order of US President George W. Bush, a tentative plan for a Mars mission was prepared, but its astronomical cost - $200 billion - caused the plans to be abandoned. This time, the cost of sending three crews to Mars is estimated at between $25 billion and $50 billion over 12 years.

The project provides that before the launch of a spacecraft with people on board, three space cargo ships will be launched, which will go to the red planet, as they say, at “low speed” - also for the sake of economy.

The first of them will set a course for Mars in 2009. Its task is to launch a fully fueled spacecraft into orbit of the planet, on which the settlers will return to Earth. The second will ensure the delivery of an unfuelled rocket capsule to the Martian surface. The local atmosphere, consisting of mainly from carbon dioxide, will serve with fuel to produce methane - fuel for the capsule. On it, the crew will ascend to the ship waiting for them in orbit and will drop living quarters modules, laboratories and an electricity generation unit with a nuclear energy source onto the planet.

However, experts note that much of the project has not yet been fully worked out, both technically and economically. In particular, if it is accepted for execution, the first stage will be the sending of an unmanned research vehicle to Mars, which will test in practice the possibility of obtaining rocket fuel from the local atmosphere.

In March 1999, NASA management gave the go-ahead for such a flight to begin in 2001.

To what has been said, we can only add that this expedition is largely based on the ideas of the 46-year-old engineer R0. Berta Zubrina. However, he makes calculations not only on paper. In his workshop, technologies that will begin working on Mars tomorrow are already being tested.

And to begin with, he intends to test “Martian tents” on the polar island of Devon (Canada) - inflatable dwellings, which, according to the inventor, will be quite useful to travelers on the red planet.

However, many researchers believe that modern chemical fuel rockets have almost exhausted their resources and are not suitable for long-distance space travel.

“With the help of an ion drive we will be able to fly to other planets much faster and using less fuel,” says physicist Horst Loeb from the University of Giessen.

An ion engine accelerates a spacecraft not due to the release of gases from burning fuel, as in a rocket, but according to a completely different principle. Here the working fluid - predominantly inert gas xenon - is not burned, but blown out directly. In this case, electrically charged gas particles (ions) appear. High voltage applied to the metal grid accelerates the particles, like a gun barrel.

Of course, the particles have low mass, which means that the recoil caused by it has a small lifting force. Even the most powerful ion engine today can only lift a tennis ball into the sky. To overcome the force of gravity of the Earth, you cannot do without traditional rockets.

The advantage of the ion drive is manifested only in weightlessness: with the same amount of fuel, it allows you to fly a distance 10 thousand times greater than a conventional drive, and reach a speed ten times higher.

Arthur C. Clarke, in his novel The Sands of Mars, argues that building domes for habitation on the red planet is within the capabilities of humanity. Moreover, the heroes of his work, who initially live under such biospheres, do not lose hope that someday Mars will regain its former atmosphere, and water will flow along the dry river beds again.

For this, they believe, not much needs to be done. The inhabitants of Mars blow up Phobos, turning it from a Martian moon into a small sun. The resulting additional energy is then used by local “airweeds” for rapid growth and development. As a result, in a few years, so much oxygen will be released into the atmosphere that people on Mars will be able to remove their oxygen masks. "

This is what an English science fiction writer writes. Well, what do scientists think about this? The same ones that in the West are called terraformists - specialists in transforming planets.

They are not utopians. On the contrary, each of them is known as a good specialist in the field of biology, planetology, atmospheric physics... And they all agree that by the end of this century it will be possible to begin transforming the terrestrial planets using so-called planetary engineering. Its methods have already been developed.

A sufficient number of necessary elements to support life have been discovered on Mars: water, light, various chemical compounds... The Martian “soil” is also quite suitable for plants. In general, the matter remains, so to speak, small - we need to change the climate of the planet. How to do this?

The general scheme is this. First, the surface of Mars will have to be heated to +38°C so that the snow and ice will melt and turn into water. And there is not so little moisture on the red planet - as recent studies show, in addition to the polar caps, there are also areas of permafrost, like in the north of our planet, where huge layers of ice are hidden under the top layer of sand. Then it will be the turn of the atmosphere to transform. It is necessary to increase the pressure and add oxygen so that people can do without masks.

By what means can all this be accomplished? Professor K. Kay, an astrophysicist working for NASA, suggests using chlorofluorocarbons, for example. The same freon and other compounds that are believed to lead to the formation of “ozone holes” above the poles of our planet. On Earth, these gases threaten us with big trouble, so let's send them into exile on the red planet. There is no ozone on Mars, there is nothing to destroy there. But the heat shield in the atmosphere created with the help of freon will, after some time, lead to an increase in temperature. And then, you see, in 50-100 years it will come to the point where rivers will flow across the surface of Mars again...

“Of course, delivering millions of tons of freon to a distant planet is a huge problem, both technical and financial. Therefore, it probably makes sense to consider other options for increasing the temperature. For example, J. Oberg proposes using ... atomic explosions for the same purpose ! Several hundred warheads with a yield of 1 megaton each - from those that will soon, hopefully, disappear from the face of the Earth - can be useful in space. With their help, it will be possible to change the trajectory of one of the asteroids, whose orbit lies not far from Mars, so that it crashes into the planet. The heat released during the impact will melt the ice, causing the evaporation of many gases that are frozen in the Martian soil and necessary for the development of life.

However, whatever you say, the use of atomic bombs is a dangerous business. Then maybe it’s worth trying the third option? According to Canadian biologist R. Haynes, a transport with microscopic lichens and algae should be sent to Mars, giving them the opportunity to change the structure of the planet. True, at the very beginning, microorganisms will need help. It will probably be necessary to seed the surface of Mars with them in several layers. The upper layers will almost certainly be killed by the ultraviolet rays of the Sun, which easily break through the rarefied atmosphere. However, during this time, the lower ones, you see, will have time to adapt, survive and quietly begin to do their noble work. According to Haynes’ calculations, in 200-300 years they will be able to recycle the Martian atmosphere to such an extent that a considerable amount of oxygen will appear in it. Of course, the time frame is considerable, but this is a grandiose undertaking!

While the bacteria improve the atmosphere, people will build housing, extract minerals, and establish an energy economy... During this initial period, the village (or villages) on Mars will be located under plastic domes, where people will be able to maintain an artificial climate.

And here... pineapples can provide invaluable help to the colonists! The fact is that these plants consume carbon dioxide not during the day, as, say, the same apple trees that are sung about in the famous song do, but at night, when the colonists are sleeping. This property will allow them to become automatic regulators of the composition of the atmosphere in Martian settlements.

Well, the newly-minted Martians themselves will, over time, certainly figure out whether they had predecessors on the “red planet.”