What Price Mars?

Okay, let’s say an eccentric billionaire calls a press conference and announces that a team of research scientists he’s employed have developed a type of algae that can survive on Mars. The billionaire plans to send the algae in fifty pound payloads with the goal that in a thousand years or so, Mars will have a breathable atmosphere. My questions are:
1.) How much would this cost? Assuming that he’s using off-the-shelf technology and intends to buy space on a commercial rocket if he can (if not, he’s more than willing to build his own) and that the algae will be stored in such a manner that it can survive the long trip to Mars. Also, the algae doesn’t need to be deposited on the surface with pinpoint accuracy, so long as it makes it to the surface intact (with an impact speed of less than, 20 MPH let’s say), that’s all that matters.

2.) Is this legal? Could he do it, or is there some international law which would prevent him from doing so? And if there is, is there any way he could get around the law (say by launching the rocket from a ship in international waters)?

I think I would be a little disappointed to learn that we were seeding Mars with organisms without first examining whether there are already any there.

Just my £0.02.

Mangetout, its called Viking.

There does not appear to be anything on Mars, not even lichen. We can’t even find any bacteria.

However, there isn’t any international law dealing with outer-space wastelands. Cost-wise, I could not imagine. A lot. Though cheaper than sending people out there.

Hardly an exhaustive search though, was it?

I’m not worried about conservation or anything; it would just be interesting to study truly alien life (if it exists) before we inevitably wipe it out.

  1. The mission would cost less than a personal B-1 Bomber:

-Planetary Society
2) There are some legal restrictions in place:

NASA -Preventing the Forward Contamination of Europa but they’re based on wimpy international treaties that can be flouted at will, if you purchase the right political cover.

I’d have thought that if it’s a unicellular algae, you wouldn’t even have to get it down to the surface; if it was robust enough, you would be able to spray it from a low orbit. (admittedly the whole thing is speculation).

This page has something to say about whether or not Mars has microbes.

The central problem to terraforming Mars is economic. While billionares are goofy enough to shoot money into space, they are few and far between.

Infecting Mars with a biological form that can survive and begin to lock up carbon is only the first of many, many steps. In a few centuries another step would be required, followed by another in a few decades. Mistakes would take years to notice and longer to fix.

I wish it were not true, but there simply in no payoff in the near- or mid-term.

Bummer.

Squink, what’s the breakdown on those? I know one of the Mars lander missions cost something like $247 million, but how much of that was for the lander, how much for the rocket to send it there, etc., etc.?

I’m a college student who makes barely above minimum wage working as tech support and networking. That is a hell of a lot of cash to me.

I don’t rightly know, and haven’t found a decent summary of mission costs. This NASA page links to pdf files: MIDEX Expendable Launch Vehicle Services Information Summary, Updated Delta II Launch Costs for March 2007 and March 2008 Launch Dates
which imply a high energy delta II launch cost, including ground services etc, of ~80-100 million. I’d guess that about a third of the remaining costs go to mission hardware and the rest to support, but a word from an actual NASA or planetary science person would be nice here.