Did NASA Kill Martian Life in the 1970s? A New Theory Revisits Viking Missions

NASA has been on a long quest to find life on Mars, with the latest mission aiming to bring back samples in the next decade. However, a professor from Germany suggests we might have already found life almost 50 years ago.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch, Professor at the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Technical University Berlin, proposes that we could have inadvertently killed it off. This idea brings into question decades of scientific experiments and theories about life on the Red Planet.

He suggests that martian lives could contain hydrogen peroxide instead of water in their cells. On Earth, certain bacteria thrive in extreme conditions but die when submerged in water. If Martian life is similar, the Viking experiments could have killed them.

About a month ago, Professor Schulze-Makuch was on a trip in Atacama Desert, where it rains “nearly once in a decade.” He found that most microorganisms in the rocks here survive by extracting water directly from the atmosphere. This strengthened his belief that the salts, as well as hydrogen peroxide, could be used as hydroscopic compounds on Mars.

“Hydrogen peroxide is not inconsistent with life. It is actually used by different organisms as well,” said Professor Schulze-Makuch.

Viking landers were launched in 1975 as the first missions to dig into Mars' soil looking for biological signs, long before the well-known Curiosity rover. Yet, the experiments conducted by the Viking landers left scientists puzzled. While one test indicated the possibility of life, the subsequent tests did not support this conclusion.

The Viking experiments involved adding water with nutrients to Martian soil samples. Critics suggest that this approach assumed Martian life would function like Earth life, perhaps a faulty premise.

Schulze-Makuch's theory raises the possibility that humanity already found life on Mars in the 1970s. Even more startling is the implication that we may have killed it shortly after discovery.