Space & Astronomy

Humans unlikely to ruin hunt for life on Mars

By T.K. Randall
June 22, 2015

Image: Mars Greenhouse
Credit: (PD) NASA via Wikimedia Commons Preventing spacecraft from carrying microbes to other planets is something that engineers have always taken extremely seriously but if we are to ever send actual human explorers to somewhere like Mars in the future then how would we prevent the possibility of contamination ?

According to researchers Andrew Schuerger and Pascal Lee this apparently won't be a problem.

Between 2009 and 2011 Lee had been part of a team responsible for driving a specialized vehicle from mainland Canada to Devon Island where a simulated Mars mission was being carried out.

While driving across the pristine snow and ice the team took samples during scheduled stops along the way, each time simulating some of the activities that explorers on Mars might undertake.The samples were taken from inside the vehicle as well as from the snow ten meters away.

After returning the samples to a laboratory the researchers found that while several bacteria and microorganisms were present inside the rover only two had survived in the snow outside.

"These results are a huge surprise," said Alberto Fairén of Cornell University who has previously argued that too much money is spent on sterilization. "The theory says that the moment a human sets a foot on Mars, every effort to prevent contamination of the planet would go out the window."

"A serious rethink of where time and money are allocated in planetary exploration is clearly in order."

Source: New Scientist

Tags: Mars