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Is Curiosity carrying Earth bacteria ?

By T.K. Randall
September 13, 2012 · Comment icon

55 comments

Image Credit: NASA

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

Reports have suggested that a NASA engineer may have opened the sealed drill unit a few months before launch in order to install a drillbit because he was concerned that the rough landing might make this impossible later on. The team dedicated to preventing contamination were never consulted about the move, meaning that it is possible microbes could have hitched a ride on the drillbit and are now multiplying on the Curiosity rover.

It isn't clear how accurate this report is or what NASA would do if it turned out to be true. It is possible that NASA will decide not to use the drill on the rover at all as a result of the error.

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.

Source: Wired | Comments (55)

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Recent comments on this story

#46 Posted by Waspie_Dwarf 12 years ago

The only real way to determine if bacteria or spores etc can survive in space or another planet for any length of time would be to conduct an experiment specifically for that purpose. In space has already been done. As I posted earlier bacteria has survived more than 500 days on the outside of the ISS. It follows that if bacteria can survive that long in earth orbit they can probably survive that long in the less harsh environment of the Martian surface. I also disagree that the only way is to send bacteria to another planet. It is perfectly possible to reproduce the conditions of, for example... [More]

#47 Posted by DONTEATUS 12 years ago

THis is why we must look very close to what we do ,But Do we must !

#48 Posted by Sundew 12 years ago

This may indeed make the search for Martian life problematic, if the very tools used to search for biology as we know it are contaminated with Earth organisms. Frankly I have always wondered how you can sterilize something as complex as a space ship, even though it may have been assembled in a clean room. Life always seems to find a way to survive and move from place to place and it is so pervasive that this almost had to happen at some point. That said, I do wonder if Earth bacteria could ever survive on Mars. It would be extremely unlikely that these would be so-called extremophile bacteria,... [More]

#49 Posted by MID 12 years ago

But let's even assume that the drill was not contaminated, that we search long and hard and find that life never has nor does exist on Mars. That because of the radiation, dryness, cold, oxygen poor environment that life never did start on Mars. What then? What then? Then, we understand that Mars is and always has been a lifeless world. However, with water, evidence of its liquid state in the past...possibly more recently than you might think, and very little insight into specifics about the Mars past (they are undoubtedly buried beneath the surface), it's unwise to even speculate about possib... [More]

#50 Posted by DONTEATUS 12 years ago

YEah ! Man looks at TIme in such a different way than the Earth Looks at time ! We just need to keep from over populating ourselfs ! Wars will and other factors will take care of the rest of our Follies ! Remember Doom and Gloom and all that mankind can mustard ! Now Thats an Idea ! Manwich`s No need to worrie about running out of Food on this Rock We just make more of Us ! Solent Green anyone?

#51 Posted by MID 12 years ago

#52 Posted by DONTEATUS 12 years ago

But D...Soylent Green is people! Yummy ! to My Tummy ! Dry agged for 40 days @ 40 deg`s Tender as an Aliens behind ! Now Thats prime rib ! You will all be crazy If I told you Im only a few miles from the White House for the next week ! I`ll be ckin out Ben`s Chili,and Halfsmoked, Some Prime Crabs from down the road in Va. and Some of the best Brother-n-Law cooking next to my B.B.Q ! See y`az! And Mid ! Dont worrie ! Im not going to let the D.C. secret out about the Little Greys they have working under the White House ! LoL!

#53 Posted by skookum 12 years ago

Even if it did get there and survive, would we be able to detect it with the equipment there at the moment?

#54 Posted by MID 12 years ago

Yummy ! to My Tummy ! Dry agged for 40 days @ 40 deg`s Tender as an Aliens behind ! Now Thats prime rib ! You will all be crazy If I told you Im only a few miles from the White House for the next week ! I`ll be ckin out Ben`s Chili,and Halfsmoked, Some Prime Crabs from down the road in Va. and Some of the best Brother-n-Law cooking next to my B.B.Q ! See y`az! And Mid ! Dont worrie ! Im not going to let the D.C. secret out about the Little Greys they have working under the White House ! LoL! Roger that, D! Copy and understand. M

#55 Posted by Waspie_Dwarf 12 years ago

Even if it did get there and survive, would we be able to detect it with the equipment there at the moment? The bigger problem is not whether we could detect it now. If it does spread then how will we know if there was indigenous life on Mars in future samples returned to Earth?

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