Mars

--- In spacesettlers, Don DAnthony wrote:

> Sooo, making a short story long...I never advocated for any abuse of
> the environment-the question, if you remember, was wether potential
> unknown microbial life on Mars would halt any activities that might
> make that environment more favorable to human habitation-a wingnut
> position in my mind.

By the time we are able to terraform Mars or any other planet, the
question of Martian microbes will have long been settled. It becomes
a question of harming an understood environment with known life forms
(or known not to have life forms), instead of a "but what if there's
life" question. Also...

> In all reality the universe is probobly full of a gazzillion species
> of microbes scattered on various worlds.
>
> Where's my can of Lysol?

Are any of these microbes useful? Once the sample size of life
exceeds one (which is what we have now: one kind of life), biology
makes huge jumps. Also, there's always the possibility that the Rock
Bacteria of Mars or the Trisexual Jellyfish of Europa or the
Quartz-Eating Ant-Things of Tau Ceti IV have medicinal, industrial, or
otherwise useful properties.

So it isn't just the "rights" of other life forms, but their
usefulness. If nothing else, they will have scientific value.