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Mars Express Begins Search for Water on Mars
H_Fisher writes "The BBC reports that the Mars Express spacecraft team is ready to deploy a radar antenna to search for traces of water and ice beneath the Martian surface. The deployment has been delayed for a year due to concerns that the unfurled antenna might damage the spaceship. Mission controllers are optimistic; perhaps the ESA will be the next to make an important discovery about the red planet?"
The Long John Silver Restaurant chain will be willing to offer free shrimp for a second time if this finds any fresh water. Of a man's appetite can dream.
Just to clue you in, it's fairly standard practice to thoroughly sterilize landers and probes before they get sent up to avoid that possibility... not to mention, even if something did get by, it would take a competent biologist probably 2 minutes to figure out it was of Earth origin... "move along, nothing to see here".
Well not to be argumentative, but:
a ge /vl2_22e169.html>
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/html/object_p
among many others.
Brett
Well. maybe. But note:
p 98_1.htm
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast01se
recounting the discovery of common strep (Streptococcus mitis) that was left in the camera on Surveyor 3 and returned 3 years later on Apollo 12, surviving the equally difficult environment on the moon.
This really tells you two things - first, that it's possible for bacteria with at least some protection to take the raw space environment for a while, and second, that although there are at least some consideration for preventing contaimination on most if not all landers (including Surveyor) that stuff slips through the cracks. They didn't pay nearly the attention to it on Surveryor that they had on others before and since (some of the early Ranger missions had failures suspected to have been caused by the sterilization procedures damaging the equipment) but they didn't just sneeze in it and shoot it off, either.
Brett
(and yes, space is sort of my personal hobby horse (not to mention my primary source of income), so please forgive my multiple posts!)