Mars Exploration Must Consider Contamination

letxa2000 writes: "CNN is reporting that the National Research Council has submitted a report to NASA that recommends certain precautions be taken if NASA is to send astronauts to Mars to guarantee that they don't bring back Mars-based bacteria and contaminate earth; including possibly banning the return vehicle from entering the Earth's atmosphere. What is the likelihood of bacterial life on Mars infecting the earth if we ever get around to visiting Mars in person?"

Comments

Overly paranoid, but good

[CmdrTaco (editor)]

While I think many of these precautions they would like to take are somewhat overly paranoid, I can't say that I disagree with them. With the possible implications running from no effect whatsever to a simple annoyance to a plague that wipes out all life on earth, I'd have to say that I too would prefer to lean on the side of caution.

But, if we take this much care in interplanetary travel, why not spend at least this much effort on intercontinental travel. Influenza accounts for thousands or more deaths across the globe each year, and by isolating the vectors it uses to spread across continents the various strains can be isolated and cause the flu shots to be much more effective.

I guess this is another upside to NASA- the public benefits from newly discovered technology some years down the line.

Introducing an organism could be bad.

[MattXonn]

You can see how bad introducing an organism can be. Just look at HIV. It is believed to have originated in western Africa, where it did not affect many people. People didn't move far back then. Europeans then starting colonising the area, and supposedly brought it back to Europe. Now it is a world-wide disease. We have no idea what the effects of bringing something from Mars would be.

Re:Must be crazy

[sharkey]

by the time a man sets foot on Mars we'll all be driving H2 vehicles.

Or we'll all have been reduced to subatomic particles in the course of Dubya's War on America.