I am aware of the current condition of Mars: dry, cold as hell, almost no free oxygen or CO2, and blasted by radiation due to a lack of a magnetosphere or Ozone layer.
That all being said, either just for fun or as a precursor to Terraforming, is there any lift form on Earth today that we know of that could survive on Mars?
I imagine it would be something very simplistic, such as arctic bacteria or Atacama dessert dwelling lichins or something.
There are bacteria that live inside solid ice on earth (not just sitting there frozen - actively alive, albeit at a (literally) glacial pace - these might be amongst the best candidates, however, I’m not sure if there is sufficiently warm water ice on Mars.
Deinococcus radiodurans, along with any number of other extremophile bacteria, could probably survive on the surface of Mars. Whether or not they could reproduce is another question, though.
May be a hijack. If they could survive on Mars, and could reproduce, what would the long term effect be? I know there can be no real answer, just guess work. But could they eventually evolve into higher life forms over millions of years? Or is Mars just too inhospitable?
Ok. Sorry for the hijack, but this is fascinating.
There are also some species of lichen which have been found to survive Mars-like conditions of atmosphere and temperature. Being photosynthetic, they would gradually convert Mars’ atmosphere of carbon dioxide into oxygen. The temperature would still be a problem, though.
Excellent Chronos, thank you! Would additional free oxygen just end up getting locked up in the Iron Oxide coloring our ruddy neighbor, or would it remain free?
There was science news recently about this very question: