Work for the ISS

Though most who write in this group seem to be engineering and other
technical types, there appears to be new understanding in biology of space
that will impact the future of space efforts, and may interest you as well.
Much of this new understanding is described in the book, Rare Earth: Why
Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe, 2000, by Peter Douglas Ward, and
Donald Brownlee, $19.25 from Amazon, but also in the recent announcements
that a) Viking may have found microbes on Mars, b) that (kilograms per day
of) microbes are raining down on Earth (from outer space) as we communicate,
and c) that viable microbes were found inside a meteorite by Italian
scientists.
So, why finance more searches to Mars to look for extraterrestrial
microbes when they can apparently be found just outside the International
Space Station? Or on the Moon, as Apollo seems to have found in Explorer
hardware.
Rare Earth makes the case that microbial life may well be common in the
galaxy as well as in our Solar System, but higher (industrial) animals are
likely not and in fact we might be it, because of the instability and
general lack of suitable planetary conditions. And it may be as we may be
discovering now with global climate change, that these conditions which we
enjoy are not going to continue for long and we need to make better
arrangements (like O'Neill habitats) which our engineers can control if we
want a future.
Sincerely, Jay S. Huebner at jhuebn@...