Are We Infecting Mars With Our Germs?

The hunt for life on Mars continues, but say if we discover life with a decidedly Earth-like flavor? This scenario might not be too far fetched according to a new study carried out by University of Central Florida scientists who will be publishing their work in the April 2010 issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Before any mission to Mars launches, NASA's scientists and engineers put every tiny component of the robot through rigorous sterilization procedures, ensuring the lander or rover is bacteria-free. This isn't because NASA has an extreme case of obsessive compulsive disorder, it's because they want to keep the Martian surface as pristine from Earth Brand™ bugs as possible.

Why?

Imagine if a struggling colony of Martian bacteria encountered some germs from Earth. Not only would this be a big let-down as far as first contact with an alien species goes (it's not as if our bacteria would make very good Earth ambassadors), it could wipe out any trace of the native life

Source

This is a seemingly valid point of alien exploration I had not previously considered, at all...

Good someone thought it over.

We should be sending as much earth life to Mars as possible.

And we will eventually send a bunch of life to Mars - regardless of what the whiners say about 'contamination'.

We should got o mars, but sad to say, mars would jsut become another price tag* typical human nature. greed*
no matter how much you clean or sterilize something ti will NEVER be 100% sterilized. as soon as you wash your hands, regardless of what soap you use, triclosan to ivory,...bacteria and germs are still clinging on and flaoting around in the air. I dont know how nasa sterilizes spacecraft though...i mean on mars and the rest of space, its lack of atmosphere=radiation exposure for sterilization. Does NASA sterlize with radiation?

Originally posted by Exuberant1
We should be sending as much earth life to Mars as possible.

And we will eventually send a bunch of life to Mars - regardless of what the whiners say about 'contamination'.

I don't even know where to start on you...

By your comment, I am led to believe that you are either certain that there is no life on Mars, or you simply do not care.

In either case, you're calling out people whom are cautious as "whiners".

So you would be alright with an alien race colonizing earth, infecting people with their pathogens and completely disregarding the earths ecosystems?
Now that is pointed out, it might make you look like a hypocrite, which leads me to the conclusion that you either are, or you do not believe that Mars hosts life.


I applaud NASA's efforts to think ahead and respect any existing ecosystems or life forms that may inhabit Mars.

reply to post by BlubberyConspiracy


cautious about what? so far as anyone can reasonably tell there is no complex life on mars. the only other life left would be bacterial. should we forgo terraforming mars because some bacteria may be destroyed? hell no. we need another planet. mars fits the bill with some terraforming. if we want to continue the human species for the next couple thousand years and beyond we've got to colonize other bodies in our solar system and eventually others in other solar systems.

sealing it away except for some random robots as some sort of tomb for "possibly's" and "maybe's" into the foreseeable future is nothing more than laziness. we can learn so much by going there, we can start over with the best of what we know by moving there, and we can use it to reach other places. just like we should with the moon.