QUESTION:
What would you do if you found life on Mars?  Would you keep it captive, 
or leave it alone?

Would you as scientists release this information to the public, or would
that decision be taken by politicians who may then choose to ban the release
for fear of causing mass hysteria and a collapse of the stock market/money
system?

ANSWER from Donna Shirley on November 23, 1996:
Well, we would at least initially try to study it.  If our robots on Mars
found (let's say) living bacteria, we would take pictures of them and do
spectral analysis, trying not to hurt them.  This would be necessary to see
if they were really alive.  Then we would have a world-wide debate about
what to do.  You could be part of the debate.

If we bring samples back and find living organisms inside the samples we
would try very hard to keep them alive.  (But it's not likely that living
organisms would survive the trip back to earth).

We don't expect to find anything more advanced than bacteria or viruses,
but if we even find that much it will be of trememdous importance to the
whole world, and there will have to be process developed to involve
scientists, philosophers and citizens to decide what to do.

ANSWER from Donna Shirley on February 11, 1997:
Check out the Martian Chronicle at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mars
There are several articles in different issues on the plans for the search
for life and missions following the current ones.

Donna Shirley

ANSWER from Jack Farmer on June 25, 1997:
There is no contingency plan presently in place to address the issue you
raise.  It is very unlikely that Sojourner will encounter any life forms (at
least life as we understand it) during the Pathfinder mission.  If something
unusual or interesting from the life standpoint is encountered, I am sure
there will be a great deal of interest in analyzing what is found in as much
detail as possible with the rover instruments.  This will be limited
however, to visual imaging and elemental analysis, which is very meager,
although useful science. Scientists will interact with the rover mainly
through planning activities that will accomplish important science goals
during the nominal mission.  Much time will be invested in analyzing rocks. 
There are no instruments to analyze organic materials on the Sojourner. 
That will have to wait for the '98 lander mission and missions beyond.  If
an organism were discovered by Sojourner, the mission would be an immediate
success and rover safety issues would be far less a concern than what to do
about future missions and sample returns which would need to worry more
about forward contamination (which would bias life detection experiments) or
back contamination (which could harm the Earth).

Jack Farmer

ANSWER from David Mittman on July 25, 1997:
Speaking personally, I'd be yelling in the streets, waving my copy of the
picture. What better way to ensure that I'd continue to have such a neat job
exploring space! I've never been quite sure why people would expect the
stock market to collapse if Martians were discovered.

ANSWER from Jack Farmer on August 4, 1997:
If we do discover life on Mars, first we will throw a big party, and then
get busy re-writing history! This will mark a singular milestone in human
history and it is unclear what the fall out will be. But such a discovery
will most assuredly impact science, philosophy and relgion and change in a
fundamental way how people see themselves in relationship to the Cosmos.

If a little critter ran past Pathfinder, we would undoubtedly try and get
its picture with the Pathfinder cameras and determine how it looked up
close, how it moved, how it reacted to to us, etc. A very basic question
would be, how could it survive without liquid water, and in the presence of
such harsh oxidizing chemicals and ultraviolet radiation that would most
assuredly kill any unprotected Earth organism? If we found life, we would
definitely need to go back with more sophisticated instruments to find out
more about it. Pathfinder carries only a very modest science payload, so
there would be lots more to learn! - Jack Farmer

Jack D. Farmer, PhD.
NASA Ames Research Center
http://exobiology.arc.nasa.gov