New Cave Entrances Seen on Mars

Riding with Robots writes "The Mars Odyssey orbiter has come across what look to be openings to cavernous spaces under the surface of Mars. NASA reports the find is fueling interest in potential underground habitats and sparking searches for caves elsewhere on the Red Planet. These latest images follow other recent discoveries of intriguing places to explore. From the article: 'The find has led some to wonder if these or other caves on the planet may provide shelter to life or former life on the Red Planet. "Somewhere on Mars, caves might provide a protected niche for past or current life, or shelter for humans in the future," said Tim Titus of the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff. These caves, however, likely never hosted life due to the extreme altitude of their location. "Even if life has ever existed on Mars, it may not have migrated to this height," said Cushing.'"

Dust-free caves on Mars?

[eskayp]

Not being a rocket scientist there is something I don't understand:
Why aren't the Martian caves filled with dust accumulated from the seasonal storms?
Are gases or vapors from within clearing the cave entries of dust?
( We would expect to see trails of ejecta. )
Are the caves so new or geologically young that they have not yet drifted full?
Are the caves at elevations above most of the Martian dust storms?
Layman's questions looking for non-tinfoil-hat expert answers.

Re:Don't see why not.

[MichaelSmith]

I think it would be interesting to look inside these caves but I don't think we are going to find life on Mars. My reasoning is that life on Earth is absolutely pervasive. It is in every cubic centimetre of ocean and every square centimetre of the Arctic and Antarctic, and all of our deserts.

Maybe Earth life could get the kind of toehold on Mars which we postulate for Mars life, but if Mars had native life it would be everywhere. Perhaps not out in the sun but certainly under each and every rock.

The effect on micro climates would be obvious to our sensors. Instead all we see is normal energy flow, the sun rises, heats up the sand, sun goes down, sand radiates into space.

Re:Don't see why not.

[Kadin2048]

I think it would be interesting to look inside these caves but I don't think we are going to find life on Mars. My reasoning is that life on Earth is absolutely pervasive. It is in every cubic centimetre of ocean and every square centimetre of the Arctic and Antarctic, and all of our deserts.

Maybe Earth life could get the kind of toehold on Mars which we postulate for Mars life, but if Mars had native life it would be everywhere. Perhaps not out in the sun but certainly under each and every rock.

The effect on micro climates would be obvious to our sensors. Instead all we see is normal energy flow, the sun rises, heats up the sand, sun goes down, sand radiates into space.

I don't disagree with you at all. I think the chance of finding life there is spectacularly slim. This is why I think the goal of looking for life should be secondary to other research aims. Exploring the caves seems like a worthy goal even aside from the life issue. They could be important in possible human settlements on the planet, both as shelter and possible sources of exploitable resources.

A large amount of the mass budget for any human habitation on Mars, whether temporary or permanent, would probably be the habitation modules itself. If there are caves with single entrances that can be closed off and pressurized (or filled with water, or even oxygen at low pressure), it seems like that would be pretty handy.

But I think it's a bad idea to sell the public on Mars exploration as a 'search for life.' What do you do when it becomes more and more clear that there isn't any? The funding will evaporate and there goes your whole program.