Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Keeping Alien Samples Safe For Study

Posted by timothy on from the unless-they're-allergic-to-sterility dept.

Metrollica writes: "Space.com features an article describing NASA's plans to prepare the Johnson Space Center that could one day house extraterrestrial life." An excerpt from the article: "It's human nature to clean for company more thoroughly than one would for oneself, but nowhere is this truth taken to greater extremes than at the Johnson Space Center. NASA's setting new standards of cleanliness in its labs that handle samples returning from space. And their efforts are laying the groundwork for samples that might some day contain evidence of extraterrestrial life from Mars, Europa, and other points little known."

6 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. The CowboyNeal Bellweather... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    you can always tell a poll's in trouble when he's got a 60% majority...

  2. My favorite... by David+M.+Sweeney · · Score: 5, Funny
    The poll options suck, as usual. My favorite is the backslash, followed closely by ctrl-V.

    Wait, I thought the poll said favorite escape characters. Never mind.

  3. Re:Uhm? by duskfalls · · Score: 5, Informative

    Farscape is a continuing series on the Sci Fi Channel. Currently on the third series. It revolves around the story of John Crichton an astronaut who while testing a vehicle, designed to use the gravity well as propulsion, accidentally gets tossed into a wormhole.
    Ok while the story is really good and all, THEY DON"T HAVE ANY BLOODY NEW EPS! Then next new ep, is supposed to air sometime in april. relevent links: Official Web Site

  4. Re:Which one by Aerog · · Score: 5, Informative

    That would be Chiana if you're into sex with aliens who don't look like us, or Aeyrn if you're into sex with aliens who do look like us.

    --

    - Relativistic? That's barely Newtonian!
  5. Andromeda Strain... by Bonker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There was no air on the moon or in high earth orbit, so there was no reason to keep the astronauts quaranteened.

    HOWEVER, it was a good idea, because they didn't know everything they were dealing with yet.

    On Mars, Europa, and Io, there exists a remote possibility for life. Retreival missions should be geared to keep this life hermetically isolated from the Earth's biosphere.... Just in case.

    --
    The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
  6. Dangerous stuff by NewtonsLaw · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Imagine if there was once advanced, possibly even intelligent, life on Mars.

    Would it be too far-fetched to speculate that perhaps that all higher life forms were wiped out by some virus or bacterial disease?

    With the plant and animal life gone, the climate of the planet would change radically -- to the extent that we see today - but the cause of the catastrophy could stil be lurking in the soil.

    What guarantees do we have that bringing back a sample of soil or rock from Mars wouldn't expose this planet to the same catastrophic outcome?

    From what I read, scientists are still debating whether those odd fossil-like oddities discovered in meteoric fragments from Mars are actually petrified bacteria.

    I think it makes a lot of sense to take every possible precaution when it comes to bringing stuff back from Mars. It might even be a good idea to do the initial analysis up in the ISS just in case it's really bad news. After all, how do we know that we could actually contain a pathogen such as that which might be returned from the red planet?

    Is it really worth the risk?