ISS Studies Show Bacteria From Earth Could Colonize Mars

As reported by Tech Times, research conducted aboard the ISS has shown that Earth bacteria could survive the rigors of travel to Mars better than might be expected. "Research into bacterial colonization on the red planet was not part of the plan to terraform the alien world ahead of human occupation. Instead, three teams investigated how to prevent microbes from Earth from hitching a ride to the red planet aboard spacecraft. It is nearly impossible to remove all biological contaminants from equipment headed to other planets. By better understanding what organisms can survive in space or on the surfaces of other worlds, mission planners can learn which forms of microscopic life to concentrate on during the sanitation process. 'If you are able to reduce the numbers to acceptable levels, a proxy for cleanliness, the assumption is that the life forms will not survive under harsh space conditions,' Kasthuri Venkateswaran of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and co-author of all three papers, said."

Comments

how long?

[Anonymous Coward]

So, group A wants to find extraterrestrial life. Group B wants to begin terraforming. How long must group B defer to group A?

Re:how long?

[RoLi]

Forever, because terraforming Mars makes no sense.

Just think about it: Here on Earth, we put more and more plants under greenhouse because greenhouses are simply better for plant growth than the natural environment.

Any terraforming of Mars would not only take almost forever but would result in an Antarctica-like climate were you would still need greenhouses anyway. It just makes much more sense to skip the terraforming-part altogether and just use greenhouses without any terraforming.

Re:how long?

[Barryke]

The greenhouses have waste products, like smoke. Where should these end up?
The sky would not stay clear enough to keep using greenhouses. The planet must have a way to stabilize itself as a huge waste-recycling plant / ecosystem.

Re:how long?

[jandrese]

If you could somehow break the runaway greenhouse effect on Venus it would be by far the best colonization option in the solar system outside of maybe the Moon (and only because the Moon is relatively close to us).

I have not done the math, but a good start might be slamming the mother of all comets into the planet to both blow most of the atmosphere away and to introduce a planet's worth of liquid water. Then dump massive amounts of engineered plankton on the planet to start fixing the CO2 and also start creating a biosphere. We're talking about a several thousand (probably million) year project here, but it's a lot easier than trying to ship and atmosphere over to Mars.

Re:how long?

[Cyberax]

Mars is capable of holding atmosphere for hundreds of millions of years. Mars has more than enough gravity to hold together Earth-like atmosphere with negligible losses.

The main problem is the solar wind, it consists of fast-moving particles that can give enough push to ions and atoms in the atmosphere to achieve escape velocity. But solar wind is very thin, so it's not like it'll be an immediate threat.

Article summary doesn't match article content

[TrollstonButterbeans]

Title of TFA = "Bacteria from Earth can easily colonize Mars"

And article makes no such claim.

It says spores would survive to Mars, which isn't surprising.

Once there, then what?

No singificant amounts water, no source of nutrients to digest, no oxygen to convert sugar to energy. temperatures around -40 celsius, possibly toxic soil and atmospheric pressure low enough it might affect metabolism otherwise --- and little shielding from ultraviolet light (no ozone layer).

Article title is fun proof of what happens when someone with to no interest/education in science tries to interpret information and draw a conclusion.

Re: Article summary doesn't match article content

[Anonymous Coward]

The story is so recently stolen from the Reddit front page that it's still viewable there within a few "next page" clicks.

The real problem you're noticing is Dice and the hacks like timothy not giving a fuck about Slashdot, let alone education or science.

Re:Article summary doesn't match article content

[tsotha]

That's what I was thinking. Putting earth bacteria on mars is like dropping naked people on the north pole and saying "go forth and multiply". I can't imagine them colonizing anything except in tandem with humans.

Re:Article summary doesn't match article content

[aliquis]

like dropping naked people on the north pole and saying "go forth and multiply".

That sounds like my only chance!

Re:Article summary doesn't match article content

[NatasRevol]

No singificant amounts water, no source of nutrients to digest, no oxygen to convert sugar to energy. temperatures around -40 celsius, possibly toxic soil and atmospheric pressure low enough it might affect metabolism otherwise --- and little shielding from ultraviolet light (no ozone layer).

And yet life lives here on earth under those conditions - middle of the desert, at the poles, thousands of feet under water.

Re:Article summary doesn't match article content

[powerlinekid]

Yes but are there any microbes that survive all of those in an active form at the same time? I don't disbelieve that some inactive microbes could essentially hibernate on Mars indefinitely. However certain conditions need to exist for those microbes to flourish.

The little critters near the thermal vents in the bottom of the ocean are pretty tough but ultraviolet light isn't something they've ever had to deal with and its unlikely they have any protection against it. Same with anything in antartica. They can do -40 and they can do ultraviolet light but can they do 0 oxygen?

Its not about saying "Huzzah this can survive 3 out of the 4 requirements!". They need to survive all of them and that seems unlikely. Unless we were planning on digging a hole, dropping them in there and covering them back up. Again assume the soil isn't too different for them to adapt.

They can GET to Mars

[Geoffrey.landis]

Exactly.
The article says that they can GET to Mars... in ensporulated (inactive) form.
I can even believe that they can survive on Mars... in inactive form.
But can they metabolize and reproduce and spread once they get to Mars?? That's a lot harder. Mars is cold. Mars is dry. Mars is irradiated with UV.
I could imagine that some organisms that are simultaneously extreme cryophiles, and halophiles (any water that is liquid is going to be very saline) and also radiation tolerant might survive... but these organisms aren't likely to be the ones contaminating spacecraft, unless we assemble spacecraft in Antarctica.

Re:They can GET to Mars

[TapeCutter]

The question is not weather they will spread on Mars, the question is how do you prevent experimental equipment designed to detect Martian microbes from detecting Earth microbes that came along for the ride. Also they do not need to be exotic Earth species to survive inside the equipment, common lichen for example can survive the vacuum/radiation of space for at least a year, as demonstrated by experiments performed at the ISS.

Re:terraform the alien world

[camperdave]

Angels don't exist.

There are several angry baseball players outside that would like to have a word with you.

How about cockroaches?

[ruir]

Find some sort of revenue which can be taxed/robbed and send some politicians in...