Mars: Fears Curiosity Will Contaminate Planet

Could not find anything using search so just bringing this to the attention of ATS...

Apparently procedures have not been followed and Curiosity may contaminate the red planet!!!

I think if this is true it's unforgivable.

I can just see them saying we found life but bad news... We put it there, good cover story if they needed one.

I just have a hard time believing they could make this sort of "mistake".

Mars: Fears Curiosity Will Contaminate Planet

That fruit that opened should be fired and his name should be stated everywhere so he ends up as a Janitor.

Wow, to think these guys get paid 300-400k/yr.

If i do that at my workplace without following proper SoP, they would kick me out in a instant and i would be under investigation.

Things like this makes me wonder why there are people in jobs who are clearly not fit for the jobs. Its time to let the younger minds in to these industry and kick out all the old people.

it is powered by some sort of radioactive red hot plutonium 2??something

maybe it will detonate and mars will become


dumb dumb dumbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb planet X

Either that or they discovered microbial life and can now discount is as contaminants. Just another train of thought

reply to post by welshreduk



I know im here on ATS and but i hate to get all conspiracy-ee but i feel like this could be a possible way to discredit any real life found on the planet. you know "just in case". maybe to buy more time for their preparations for disclosure of findings. maybe its to muddy the waters etc. ? It just seems very convenient that the very drill used to search for life has been possibly contaminated.

Quote from article

"Microbiologist Catharine Conley reportedly learned of the breach just before take-off on November 26, but by then it was too late to fix the error."

REALLY! Before take off was too late? hmmmm. I think it just wasn't that important to them.

Combine this with the fact there are 5kg of plutonium-238 on-board Curiosity, if there wasn't life on Mars before - there may be now.

Doesn't really make sense that they would make a big deal about microbes that will likely never survive yet any malfunctions with their power supply would contaminate a portion of the planet with radiation for many years to come.

On a more serious note, if they do detect life on Mars, now they'll have to go the extra step to ensure it just wasn't carried there by the rover. I hope they do their due diligence. Would be embarrassing for NASA to announce they found life on Mars only to find out it didn't originate there!

reply to post by welshreduk

I can just see them saying we found life but bad news... We put it there, good cover story if they needed one

Yep me too , but it was always going to be a back up argument anyway in my opinion given the amount of hardware we've dumped up there .

"Water or ice near the surface in Gale Crater was not a significant probability," Nasa programme executive David Lavery said.

Of course not , its not like the sedimentary layers of Gale Crater were laid down by water ... Oh wait a minute

what really bothers me is how our people in power think that we can just send these things to different planets without thinking about how it might disturb their environment.

say, for example, that another planet sent that kind of probe here, it would freak most of mankind out. and it could bring anything with it. as much as it could just as easily happen, it's irresponsible and ignorant.

i really believe we need to learn to look after the planet we're on before we go and corrupt other ones. sad state of affairs imo.

This is like a soap opera. Alot of story twists and turns, and all to engage and
mesmerize the populice into believing that, what is in fact complete fiction, is fact.

The curiosity mars mission is just a(nother) NASA hoax.

Wait I really suck at science, so please correct me if i'm wrong, but didn't life on Earth start from things like microbes? If thats the case and we have just put microbes on Mars, then haven't we just like ... Put life on Mars?

I guarantee they knew exactly what they were doing. NASA is trying to play God. Watch Mars turn into a luscious earth-like planet. Then earthlings would take credit for it and reap its natural resources...not really sure how long it would take for a process like this to happen, but its a thought.

Originally posted by luciddream
That fruit that opened should be fired and his name should be stated everywhere so he ends up as a Janitor.

Wow, to think these guys get paid 300-400k/yr.

If i do that at my workplace without following proper SoP, they would kick me out in a instant and i would be under investigation.

Things like this makes me wonder why there are people in jobs who are clearly not fit for the jobs. Its time to let the younger minds in to these industry and kick out all the old people.

Please provide a link that lends credence to your notion that this problem was caused by "Old People"

reply to post by SaltireWarrior


I was thinking along the same lines. Why does it matter if they're microbes on Mars now. If they microbes survived and can continue to survive doesn't that prove life is possible on Mars? Isn't that they whole idea of it?

Explanation: S&F!

OMFG!

Now how to fix?

Curiosity Rover [wiki]

Robotic arm
The turret at the end of the robotic arm holds five devices.The rover has a 2.1 m (6.9 ft) long arm with a cross-shaped turret holding five devices that can spin through a 350-degree turning range. The arm makes use of three joints to extend it forward and to stow it again while driving. It has a mass of 30 kg (66 lb) and its diameter, including the tools mounted on it, is about 60 cm (24 in).

Two of the five devices are in-situ or contact instruments known as the X-ray spectrometer (APXS), and the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI camera). The remaining three are associated with sample acquisition and sample preparation functions: a percussion drill, a brush, and mechanisms for scooping, sieving and portioning samples of powdered rock and soil. The diameter of the hole in a rock after drilling is 1.6 cm and up to 5 cm deep. The drill carries two spare bits. The rover's arm and turret system can place the APXS and MAHLI on their respective targets, and also obtain powdered sample from rock interiors, and deliver them to the SAM and CheMin analysers inside the rover.

Radioisotope thermoelectric generator [wiki]



Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator [wiki]

Like the earlier GPHS-RTGs (made by Teledyne) they are powered by Pu-238 dioxide GPHS modules (8 for MMRTG). Initially an MMRTG will generate about 2 kW thermal power.

So clearly NASA can place the Robitic Arm near the RTG and use that 2KW of thermal heat to try STERILIZE the contaminated drill-bit.

Personal Disclosure: I'd also like to point out that the laser in the MainMast Camera Head can also help do the same job of sterilization.

Edited to add ... Furthermore the robotic hand where the drill is is fitted with ...

Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI)
Main article: Mars Hand Lens Imager
MAHLI is a camera on the rover's robotic arm, and acquires microscopic images of rock and soil. MAHLI can take true-color images at 1600×1200 pixels with a resolution as high as 14.5 micrometers per pixel. MAHLI has a 18.3 mm to 21.3 mm focal length and a 33.8- to 38.5-degree field of view. MAHLI has both white and ultraviolet LED illumination for imaging in darkness or fluorescence imaging. MAHLI also has mechanical focusing in a range from infinite to millimetre distances. This system can make some images with focus stacking processing.[68] MAHLI can store either the raw images or do real time lossless predictive or JPEG compression.

Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS)
The device will irradiate samples with alpha particles and map the spectra of X-rays that are re-emitted for determining the elemental composition of samples. Curiosity's APXS was developed by the Canadian Space Agency. MacDonald Dettwiler (MDA), the Canadian aerospace company that built the Canadarm and RADARSAT, were responsible for the engineering design and building of the APXS. The APXS science team includes members from the University of Guelph, the University of New Brunswick, the University of Western Ontario, NASA, the University of California, San Diego and Cornell University. The APXS instrument takes advantage of particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE), previously exploited by the Mars Pathfinder and the Mars Exploration Rovers.

So it can turn the UV leds on and the Xray device whilst hovering the arm near the RTG and finally can look at its own hand using the MainMast Camera and zap any suspiscious bits of the drill bit with the laser.

IMO,

this is entirely irrelevant...UNLESS for the problem that those microbes might possibly interfere with their experiments to find life right now.

Why is it irrelevant? Because, seen over decades or maybe even hundreds of years, we WILL go to Mars, we will have manned missions, possibly Mars bases and whatnot...it will be unavoidable that microbes from Earth will be on Mars, over the long-run. Scientist are speculating about terra-forming Mars, that is, altering its entire atmosphere, bringing out plants/algae etc. and basically dreaming of turning Mars into a second Earth..but then FREAKING about some microbes? Does not make a lot of sense.

This is somewhat being sensationalised. Assuming that any microbes did survive the journey and do make their way onto the surface, they'll find the place to be inhospitable. Whilst there are organisms that could survive and thrive on Mars these are heavily adapted extremeophiles that occupy niches often either miles underground or deep in ice. The likelihood of such organisms being the ones that 'made the journey' is essentially zero.

Contamination of the Martian surface is unavoidable however, when manned missions eventually land on the planet it will happen, no matter how stringent the procedures to prevent it.

Essentially this episode boils down to having a fully functioning drill that will provide invaluable insight into the geological history of Mars with the tiniest risk of contamination (I would go as far as to say no risk but that's not scientific) versus a potentially damaged drill with no risk. Whilst it is not ideal I for one am glad they took the steps to ensure the success of the mission.

I say "contaminate" the hell out of it. Lets get life on Mars. Bring on the terraforming.

Originally posted by homeskillet
reply to post by welshreduk

 

I know im here on ATS and but i hate to get all conspiracy-ee but i feel like this could be a possible way to discredit any real life found on the planet. you know "just in case". maybe to buy more time for their preparations for disclosure of findings. maybe its to muddy the waters etc. ? It just seems very convenient that the very drill used to search for life has been possibly contaminated.

agreed,
NASA never admits to mistakes like this that could easily be covered up, so why are they now volunteering this info about a "mistake"?

i believe they did find life there and they are creating an alibi to discount it before they release the news that they found life on mars.

reply to post by welshreduk

Curiosity is nuclear-powered. Some people have speculated that there is more than just a miniature nuclear power source / reactor(?) with its package of "goodies." Some have speculated that Curiosity has a SELF DESTRUCT capability, that it is either capable of a nuclear explosion and/or has the ability to deploy at least two tactical nuclear bombs. Why?

From what has been said, there are certain "unsavory" entities in the caves/caverns of Mars. Another speculation states that regardless of the unsavory entities being there or not, ther are ruins of a highly controversial nature known to exist on Mars, in the area of Curiosity's deployment. A nuclear power source allows Curiosity to function in places with no sunlight (caves/caverns) so that it can deploy one, two or more tactical nukes, navigate away to a safe distance. Two options at this point:

1. After deploying the tactical nukes, Curiosity would set them off at a safe distance and continue exploration.
2. Same as above, but Curiosity deploys itself to another target and sets-off itself to take out an additional location.

There is another option of not setting-off the nukes in order to use them as "leverage" in potential future situations. Any tactical nukes set-off on Mars would simply not be reported. If any of the public were to discover the nukes going-off by chance, NASA or some agency might put forth the explanation that the explosions were nothing more than bright visual anomalies.

So, the issue of contamination is not as much of an issue within the context of potential nuclear destruction/warfare on and below the surface of Mars.