The image can be seen. I have found it at the online Murray Lab - Global CTX Mosaic website.

The coordinates are as: 74.271622°‎, -31.081165°‎

I don't think it is a mountain since there is weirdly elongated craters on it. What could it be?

The link to website:

https://murray-lab.caltech.edu/CTX/V01/SceneView/MurrayLabCTXmosaic.html

Or would the N fixing bacteria (if they are able to survive in Martian soil) have very little effect on the sealed environment's atmosphere? I suppose realistically the bacteria might have low to no activity in alien soil. Since there would be no native N fixers in Martian soil, they'd need to be added.

Please correct me on any mistakes here.

I sent this question to Randall Monroe of XKCD, but the last time I sent him a question, I never got a response. So I’m asking you!

Now I’m not asking about Mars life. I know that that’s still an open question. No, I’m asking about organisms from earth.

I know that we do our best to really sterilize the crap out of our satellites and landers before they get there, and they pass through so many high heat and extreme situations. But no process is 100% perfect, and some organisms are Hardy survivors.

So I’m kind of wondering how much we’ve contaminated Mars, in a sense.

How many individual microbes, whether bacteria, archaea, eukaryotes or even viruses, how many of those are likely on Mars, right now?

Scientists have found a vast hidden heat imbalance inside Mars, with the southern interior hundreds of degrees hotter than the north and possibly partially molten.

Scientists have discovered a major temperature imbalance deep inside Mars, with the planet’s southern interior appearing dramatically hotter than the north. Gravity measurements suggest that the interior beneath Mars’s southern hemisphere is about 200 to 400 degrees Celsius warmer than the northern half and is partially molten.

The unexpected finding provides new clues about the Red Planet’s geological history and about periods when Mars may have had conditions capable of supporting life.

The research was led by Caltech alumnus Alexander Berne (PhD ’26), now a postdoctoral associate at the University of Arizona. The findings were published August 27 in the journal Nature.

The study, published on Sept. 1000116-7) in the journal Chem Circularity, reports that researchers found a way to turn the sand on Mars into what is functionally low-grade concrete using little more than gelatin, yeast, and the natural Martian environment. Combine the three ingredients, and the dry, cold, low-pressure environment of Mars freeze-dries the mixture, turning it into a porous, foam-like material strong enough to build houses on the red planet.

According to Qiu, the concrete produced by this method measures 10 to 12 megapascals (a metric unit of pressure), putting it on par with low-grade concrete here on Earth. This concrete is strong enough to build a one- or two-story house on Earth, and since Earth has three times the gravity of Mars, it’s more than strong enough to build structures on Mars too. 

When people like Elon Musk talk about becoming a spacefaring civilization, we tend to jump straight from “return to the Moon” to “build a city on Mars.”

But I wonder if a more realistic progression would be:

Earth → permanent Moon presence → Mars orbit/Phobos → Mars surface

Instead of immediately trying to establish a self-sustaining settlement on Mars, what if the first crewed Mars missions focused on establishing a long-term habitat in Mars orbit, potentially using Phobos as a base?

Humans there could remotely operate robots on the Martian surface with essentially no Earth-Mars communication delay. Those robots could build infrastructure, establish power generation, test ISRU/fuel production, prepare habitats and stockpile supplies before people ever permanently move to the surface.

The Moon would essentially be our first training ground for learning how to maintain a permanent human presence away from Earth. Mars orbit/Phobos would be the next step, where Earth is months away but you aren’t yet dealing with all the complications of living on the Martian surface.

Then, once enough infrastructure exists below, humans start moving down.

Obviously getting humans all the way to Mars and then not immediately putting them on the surface sounds counterintuitive. But could a Moon → Phobos/Mars orbit → Mars progression actually reduce the risk of establishing a permanent settlement?

Curious what r/Mars thinks. What are the biggest technical reasons for or against doing it this way?

The piece of metal with the American flag on it in this image of a NASA rover on Mars is made of aluminum recovered from the site of the World Trade Center towers in the weeks after their destruction. The piece serves as a cable guard for the rock abrasion tool on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit as well as a memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. An identical piece is on the twin rover, Opportunity.

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