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- Path: sparky!uunet!sun-barr!ames!pacbell.com!network.ucsd.edu!news!nosc!suned1!slced1!slb
- From: slb@slced1.nswses.navy.mil (Shari L Brooks)
- Newsgroups: sci.space
- Subject: Seeding Venus (was Re: Is NASA really planning to Terraform Mars?)
- Summary: put bacteria & algae in Venusian upper atmosphere
- Message-ID: <22329@suned1.Nswses.Navy.MIL>
- Date: 15 Sep 92 22:49:08 GMT
- References: <+7qn_q-.tomk@netcom.com> <22205@suned1.Nswses.Navy.MIL> <1992Sep13.205938.16251@cs.rochester.edu>
- Sender: news@suned1.nswses.navy.MIL
- Organization: Naval Satellite Operations Center, Point Mugu, CA, USA
- Lines: 35
-
- In article <1992Sep13.205938.16251@cs.rochester.edu> dietz@cs.rochester.edu
- (Paul Dietz) writes:
-
- >In article <22205@suned1.Nswses.Navy.MIL> slb@slced1.nswses.navy.mil
- >(Shari L Brooks) writes:
-
- >>But I have
- >>always thought, there are plenty of bacteria & single-celled algae
- >>capable of putting up with the Venusian extremes.
-
- >Excuse me? If by the "Venusian extremes" you mean the surface
- >of Venus (with its extreme temperature and pressure), this is
- >simply wrong. No living creature based on the common terrestrial
- >model (proteins, DNA, etc.) could survive those conditions. Indeed,
-
- No, I am thinking of the upper atmosphere, above the sulfuric acid...
- I seem to recall that there is oxygen and the atmospheric pressure there
- is still survivable. [to bacteria, not humans!]
-
- I was thinking, that if the upper Venusian atmosphere were "seeded" with
- a variety of bacteria, algae, even viruses (although I am fairly unsure
- of the efficacy of that), that some would survive, adapt, and thrive.
- Eventually evolution would dictate that something would adapt to surviving
- lower down.
-
- >even the somewhat less extreme conditions inside hydrothermal
- >vents here on earth are too hot for amino acids to survive.
-
- Are these conditions less extreme than the upper atmosphere of Venus?
-
- --
- Shari L Brooks | slb%suned1.nswses.navy.mil@nosc.mil
- NAVSOC code NSOC323D | shari@caspar.nosc.mil
- NAWS Pt Mugu, CA 93042-5013 | ==> this will change by the end of Sept <==
- The US Navy probably disagrees w/all statements/opinions above, which are mine.
-