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Is Curiosity carrying Earth bacteria ?


Saru

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NASA's Mars rover may have inadvertantly carried bacteria from Earth on to Mars in its drillbits.

Worried scientists at Nasa now estimate that there may be as many as 250,000 bacterial spores that could have survived both the journey to Mars and the landing.

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Wouldn't it be funny if a new life started because of there mistake :-D

No it wouldn't.

It would be anything but funny. From a scientific point of view it would be a disaster. It would mean we would never be able to know if there was native life on Mars.

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Waspie..... there are ways to separate any possible life we find on a Mars, from the ones that might have survived the trip from Earth, yes??

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Waspie..... there are ways to separate any possible life we find on a Mars, from the ones that might have survived the trip from Earth, yes??

I'm certainly no expert on genetics, but I suppose it's not impossible but there are all sorts of nightmare scenarios as far as science is concerned.

If life IS found on Mars it would answer a huge number of questions if we could determine if life arose separately on the two worlds, evolved on one and was carried to the other on a meteorite or evolved elsewhere (on comets for example) and was carried yo both.

Contaminating Mars will make that determination difficult, if not impossible.

Earth bacteria could cross with Martian bacteria or even replace it, destroying the native life on that world.

Edited by Waspie_Dwarf
typo
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In millions of years time people will wonder how crap from earth got on mars . Same kind of mystery we have with the pyramids etc .

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Martians: "There goes the neighborhood"! Us: "Hook up the double-wide Billy Bob- we're goin' to Mars".

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In millions of years time people will wonder how crap from earth got on mars . Same kind of mystery we have with the pyramids etc .

I seriously doubt that our "crap" will last that long on Mars,... now, on our moon, thats another thing.

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Perhaps the drill incident can be recreated and subjected to a comparable cosmic environment as Curiosity was exposed. This would perhaps provide a probabilistic baseline from which to speculate. Regardless, if we ever set foot upon Mars we are certainly going to contaminate the environment.

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Perhaps the drill incident can be recreated and subjected to a comparable cosmic environment as Curiosity was exposed. This would perhaps provide a probabilistic baseline from which to speculate. Regardless, if we ever set foot upon Mars we are certainly going to contaminate the environment.

Yes, in much the same way as we contaminated the environment of the Moon diring 14 two man lunar EVAs conducted between July, 1969 and December, 1972.

I remember worrying about those so much!

And Mars?

When we go there, you think that a human hand or foot will touch the surface, and somehow,. contaminate the Martian environment?

How is that going to happen?

Just curious.

Edited by MID
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ITs all relative now isnt it ! Life finds a way, Come on people ! Lets go for it ! Send humans to Mars,its the best trip we can plan for at our level right now ! We can Do it ! Dig deep into that piggy bank ! ITs only money, We can print all NASA needs ! :tu:

ANd by the way THeres already Life on Mars ! Her name is Curiosity ! And yes SHe`s alive with Life ! We Built that !

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ITs all relative now isnt it !

Not really. I'm afraid you have massively missed the point here. One of the major justifications for sending missions to Mars is the search for life. If we have contaminated the planet then that justification no longer exists. If Curiosity is contaminated then a large portion of it's scientific results will be meaningless.

Life finds a way,

I fear you've been paying to much attention to Jurasic Park and too little to real science.
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In millions of years time people will wonder how crap from earth got on mars . Same kind of mystery we have with the pyramids etc .

Millions? I would be surprised if we made it that long!! We are merely half of that now, if you count our related ancestors via evolution.

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But would that bacteria survive martian environment?

If it has a source of energy, then it is possible. IMO, not very likely with the conditions. However, we don't know how fast life can evolve in different environments. It may be extreme, but we have extremophiles.

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I have to agree with Waspie on this one , its a disaster if we have contaminated Mars , how can we be certain ( if we find some sort of life ) we didnt bring it with us , most , if not all collected samples would be pretty much usless .

I would have thought that all items would have been cleaned , re-cleaned and double checked 10 times over before it was packed for transport .

Bit of a shame , hopefully the bacteria has died along the trip .....

TiP.

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If there was life or not doesn't concern me. I would like to send lichens samples to Mars to see if it will grow.

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If there was life or not doesn't concern me. I would like to send lichens samples to Mars to see if it will grow.

Whether life on Earth is unique is one of the most important scientific questions ever. Whether it concerns you or not is of no importance, it is of great importance to many people, and not just scientists. Proving once and for all that the Earth is not unique in terms of life will be a discovery that will be felt for generations to come.

The fact that you would destroy that chance with a nonsensical, pointless experiment that could be done more easily and cheaply by reproducing Martian conditions on Earth makes me glad that it is NASA running the show, not random people on the internet.

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Well, this will certainly cause an interesting debate if "dead or alive" micrbial life is "found" on Mars after using the contaminated drill bit.

What I'm curious, though, is if there is any actual evidence of contamination, or any way to conclusively find out prior to actual drilling.

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Is this a kind of transpermia?

Is it transpermia or panspermia? Maybe both are accepted.

Anyway, I guess so. Instead of life spreading via asteroids it could now spread through a Rover.

A lot can happen in 2 years. I just wonder if water is really needed to produce life. What about methane and possible ethane?

Edited by Render
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Whether life on Earth is unique is one of the most important scientific questions ever. Whether it concerns you or not is of no importance, it is of great importance to many people, and not just scientists. Proving once and for all that the Earth is not unique in terms of life will be a discovery that will be felt for generations to come.

The fact that you would destroy that chance with a nonsensical, pointless experiment that could be done more easily and cheaply by reproducing Martian conditions on Earth makes me glad that it is NASA running the show, not random people on the internet.

Understood, and agreed with, Waspie!

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Is it transpermia or panspermia? Maybe both are accepted.

Anyway, I guess so. Instead of life spreading via asteroids it could now spread through a Rover.

A lot can happen in 2 years. I just wonder if water is really needed to produce life. What about methane and possible ethane?

You're Right! Panspermia! Lol

Maybe that is how Earth started, some alien touched a rover that was being sent to Earth and now we are the product of the bacteria on its hands or tentacles our whatever... Lol

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Glad they were careful when they spent all that time and money on this project. Isn't it wonderful to just watch the smart folk throw away years of their lives and millions of our hard earned dollars.

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