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Post date: Oct 29, 2012 8:54:1 AM
Manned mission to Mars would threaten life on the Red Planet
PUBLISHED: 29 October 2012
It could be decades if ever before man steps foot on Mars, but if he ever does he'll bring with him trillions of tiny invaders that could be a danger to the planet's natives.
'We have the responsibility to Mars,
I think — even if it's just Martian microbes — not to kill them by the act of detecting them,' said Cynthia Phillips of the
Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute.
Planetary Protection
Scientists say a swarming mass of 100 trillion microbes will travel with every astronaut who may land on Mars.
And while those microbes have evolved over thousands of years to help people do everything from digesting their food to keeping bacteria from killing us, there's no telling how they might interact with the Martian environment.
The Committee on Space Research even established a protocol in 2008, aiming to protect Earth from any contamination from Mars and vise versa.
The plan also advises avoiding gullies, potentially geothermal sites, and any other region where Earth life could survive.
300,000 bacterial spores Mars rover
While mechanical pioneers like NASA's Curiosity rover which landed on August 5th can be cleaned enough that they only carry no more than 300,000 bacterial spores on any surface that could transfer to the Martian environment, there's no way to get human explorers that clean.
source: dailymail.co.uk
Elon Musk SpaceX
founder and CEO of the private spaceflight firm SpaceX, has said he hopes fly astronauts to Mars within 15 years and
Dutch company Mars One
wants to put four people on the planet in 2023 as the first steps towards establishing a permanent colony.
Mars One wants to pay for that flight by staging a reality-show around it.
Under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty,
countries can be held responsible for interplanetary activities of private businesses within their borders, and could be taken to international court on charges of contaminating another planet.
'It's the environmentally responsible thing to do,' said Cassie Conley, NASA's planetary protection officer. 'If you want to be a good citizen of the solar system, you do the planetary protection requirements, just like you pick up the litter and you don't spread your pollution all over the countryside.'
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