Martian Bigfoot?

It's always rewarding when the field you work in breaks out of obscurity into the mainstream press. These instances inspire you to continue working and justify, to some extent, what you've done so far. So you would think that the astrobiology community would have been excited by the news stories about "potential life on Mars" circulating around such august sites as the Times of London and NBC, right? Well, not when the pieces speculate about the existence of a martian bigfoot.

The stories, which appeared a couple of weeks ago, are based on this image, taken by the rover Spirit in early November of last year. Some are speculating that a humanoid creature is galavanting around Mars and that NASA is trying to cover it up.



Let's be honest, this story is absurd, and I think most people with some basis of science knowledge understand this. It is tempting for those of us in the business of searching for signs of life on Mars to look down derisively on those willing to even entertain the idea that there is some element of truth in these outlandish stories. But to do so would be missing a valuable opportunity. True, stories of 'Bigfoot' do a dis-service to the public perception of more rigorous searches for life, but they do raise the public consciousness of the issue. If nothing else, they re-enforce the huge public interest in the idea of life on Mars, given the fact that such tenuous "evidence" could gain such coverage.

But while these images are circulating and people are talking, we would be wise to engage the issue and use the opportunity to shed some light on the "real" search for life. Some of the world's most advanced technology is being harnessed to transport incredible remote-controlled rovers to the surface of another planet, more than 35 million miles away. I think most people would be surprised that the effort is mostly focused on scouring the soil for individual molecules that would indicate life: astrobiologists would be thrilled with the detection of so much as a single molecule of DNA, much less an intact cell or a (gasp) macroscopic organism. This is because Mars is an extremely inhospitable place, and only in very localized niches with just the right distribution of elements might life persist. The atmospheric pressure on the surface of Mars is less than 1% of that on Earth (at sea level)! Our friend Bigfoot would explode rather quickly without a pressurized space suit. What air is he breathing (the atmosphere is only .01% oxygen)? What food is he eating?

The stories of Bigfoot are ridiculous to be sure, but they do serve as a worthwhile thought experiment to work out what life needs to exist, what makes Mars so inhospitable, and what future human explorers might need in order to walk around on the surface. Oh, and for those of you still wondering, the object in question is actually a whimsically-shaped piece of rock that has been sculpted by thousands or millions of years of wind-blown dust. It is roughly 6 cm tall - hardly a Bigfoot at all.