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A mission of land-based robotic exploration could contaminate the fragile ocean of a solar system moon without even knowing if there is life there. Similarly, the transport of asteroid or Mars samples to Earth can potentially bring potentially harmful biological material.
There are two possibilities that resemble science fiction, but which were among the concerns of the specialists of the Academies of Sciences, Engineer and Physician of the United States, author of a report on the subject
The concern points particularly to the missions that have planned, over the next decades, to badyze whether the Europa Europa of Jpiter or Saturn's Enceladus has life
If the vehicle was to carry "stowaways" To extremist micro-organisms capable of withstanding travel from Earth, they could potentially disperse and cause severe damage to these remote ecosystems.
According to the report, the unresolved question is whether an organism deposited on the surface of an icy world could contaminate its subglacial seas and in how long.
A recommendation of the specialists is to focus on the existing micro terrestrial ground flights on Earth, which could withstand environments such as ice moons, and which control that in the line of badembly of vehicles and instruments, there is no contamination by this type of organisms.
potential life, the idea is to penetrate the ice cap and investigate these moons in situ. But if we're going to do that, we need to be sure our ships are not biologically contaminated with them, "warns James Jenkins, an exoplanet researcher at the Department of Astronomy of the United States of Chile.
Even without the need to go down, an orbital mission like the Europa Clipper, scheduled for the next decade, could become a danger to the Europa moon because if the vehicle crashes against its surface, it could also generate
the scenario is similar because there is still no clarity as to whether life really exists there.In fact, Jenkins is wondering if rovers and other vehicles who have been there since 1976 have not already contaminated their surface.
Present one of the ideas of NASA and other space agencies aims to bring samples from other worlds, especially some asteroids and Mars itself, as well as the Mars 2020 mission. to take samples that another will bring to Earth or to possible astronauts who will visit the planet by 2030 or perhaps earlier. "The riskiest thing will be to bring other forms of microbial life to the Earth and we do not have the resources to defend them," warns Jenkins
According to the specialists' report, all the preventive procedures for possible manned journeys date from the Apollo missions, so they are completely obsolete.
To this must be added the expected increase in the missions of private companies, which do not have the same regulations as those of NASA in these areas. "This is not science fiction, it's something real, Space X is already developing rockets that can come back, and many times we have to update the rules not only for government agencies, but also for businesses "recognizes Jenkins.
Only one of the proposals in the document is to create an independent agency that oversees private space travel, its procedures and its objectives strictly. For the astronomer of the U. from Chile, it must be an international entity.
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