“If Earth life cannot thrive on Mars, we don’t need any special cleaning protocol for our spacecraft; and if Earth life actually can survive on Mars, it most likely already does, after four billion years of meteoritic transport and four decades of spacecraft investigations not always following sterilization procedures.”
Originally shared by Universe Today
The recent announcement by NASA confirming the presence of liquid water on Mars pulls planetary protection into the spotlight and is causing some serious head-scratching in the scientific community. On the one hand, having existing liquid water on the Red…
http://www.universetoday.com/123029/the-puzzle-of-planetary-protection/
Meteoritic transport is a one-way street from the discussions I've seen - you shouldn't get Earth meteorites on Mars, so no contamination by that route.
ReplyDeleteFrom this angle, "planetary protection" is a bunch of polito-religious BS. A planet can take care of itself. A few microbes aren't going to hurt anything.
ReplyDeleteThey would make it harder to spot Martian microbes though.
ReplyDeleteYou have a point, but does it matter? I think the most important thing is to learn about microbes not seen on Earth and what affects they might have on us.
ReplyDeleteWe could probably tell the difference between Martian and Earth microbes with a fully-equipped lab, but not necessarily with the limited equipment on a rover. So in that sense maybe "planetary protection" is pointless for a sample return mission, but essential for one-way missions. I'm just guessing though.
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