How An Andromeda Strain Might be Strained

An anonymous reader writes "For the world-record holder as the longest surviving bacteria in space [6 years, Bacillus subtillis], it turns out that among the multitude of dangers [cold, vacuum, UV, lack of nutrients, etc.] the greatest stress of all is intense ultraviolet radiation. In the next two years, new space station experiments are slated to test the panspermia hypothesis--also popularized in Robert Zubrin's "Entering Space", but dating back at least 150 years in the scientific literature. Recent balloon experiments, have rekindled alot of the controversy, but NASA Ames scientist, Rocco Mancinelli, concludes: "In my opinion, for a spore, it's quite likely.""

Comments

Re:Lunar Colonists Were Returned To Earth...

[cybrpnk2]

"I always thought the most significant thing that we ever found on the whole goddamn Moon was that little bacteria who came back and lived and nobody ever said shit about it."-- Pete Conrad

Re:Why is this a surprise?

[PD]

This is just SO wrong in so many ways.

1) There are some things that a bacteria will never be resistant to. Physical attacks against their cell wall, for example.

2) The bacteria on Mir was not a bacteria. It was a fungus.

3) The fungus did not evolve. It was a common earth strain.

4) The fungus did not eat anything. It secreted a corrosive substance.

5) The fungus did not eat throught titanium. Mir was aluminum.

6) During periods of high solar activity, astronauts on the space station might get 30 millirems of radiation in a single day. On the other hand, on the surface we pick up 350 millirems from background, and another 150 or so from cosmic radiation in a year. So, ISS occupants do NOT receive the same amount in a day as they would get on the surface in a year.