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Could Mars have small microbes living in its dust? It seems hard to imagine, as radiation bathes the surface of the planet and no water flows in at least most parts of the red planet. But NASA's Office of Global Protection is preparing plans for what to do if Martian microorganisms appear.
At the "Humans to Mars" summit in Washington, DC, last week, May 16, NASA's Global Protection Officer, Lisa Pratt, briefly touched on the possibility of microbes in March. in a round table. She said future explorers should worry about possible biological agents in the dust, but she clarified that no one knows that life exists for sure anywhere on the Red Planet – let alone on the Martian surface.
Life as we know it would probably have disastrous consequences in the environment of the red planet filled with radiation, exacerbated by the absence of a magnetic field that would have reduced the levels of surface exposure. said Jim Rice, Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. .
Related: Can there be life on Mars today?
But yet, "it is hard to say that there is no life [on Mars]"You can not search every square millimeter on the surface," he told Space.com.
Rice should be aware of this research, as well as its explorers Mars Exploration – better known to the public Mind and Opportunity – spent years traveling the Martian surface and discovering many traces of water from the past in their landing zones. One of the pieces of evidence that they found was hematite, a mineral that tends to form in the water.
Water is an essential component of life as we know it, although its presence does not necessarily mean that there is life. In addition, the prevailing scientific wisdom suggests that most (if not all) Martian waters there are eons evaporatedwhen the atmosphere of the planet has thinned due to the continued solar erosion of its molecules. The planet had no magnetic field to protect it from the flow of charged particles from the sun.
Since the discoveries of Spirit and Opportunity after their landing in 2004, other missions on Mars have pursued the search for life on Red Planet. the Curiosity Mars rover (arrived in 2012) has not only found traces of old water, but also organic molecules – or molecules that can in some cases be associated with life. The next rovers called Mars 2020 (NASA) and Rosalind Franklin (formerly known as ExoMars, from the European Space Agency) aim to better characterize the organic materials and habitability of Martians after their launch in 2020.
And that does not even mention the many missions in orbit that swept the surface in search of suspended minerals in the water or water-shaped elements of their heights above the red planet. A discovery of Orbiter of NASA recognition on Mars remains controversial; the spacecraft saw streaks on some crater walls that had originally been described as salt water. Further analysis suggests that it can act as dust trails or contain small amounts of water from the atmosphere.
Apollo Lessons
Rice cautioned that her area of expertise was not biology, but her interdisciplinary research teams have put her in touch with people who are studying the possibility of living in d & # 39; other worlds. An example that the public knows well is quarantine facing Apollo astronauts after returning from the moon, he said.
In the 1960s and 1970s, NASA established quarantine protocols for Apollo 11, 12 and 14 crews on the moon. (Apollo 13 has never been to the surface.) The agency has lifted the quarantine requirement for the remaining Apollo missions, no evidence of microbes having been found.
No one has walked on the surface of an extraterrestrial world since 1972, with the final moon mission, Apollo 17. But we may be dealing with containment protocols on Mars sooner than we do. think, Rice said. NASA Mars 2020 mission is supposed to cache promising samples for possible return mission of samples in the near future.
Rice said, "There is nowhere to bring them back to Earth, there is nowhere for the return of Martian samples." An installation to hold the sample and examine it safely must be built, but the design – let alone the construction – is not something he has heard about yet.
Then there is the question of how much a single return sample mission would bring, he added. There is no way to sample every part of the Martian surface for life. Rice said it was unclear whether a sample return mission – or even multiple sample return missions – would be enough to address the astronauts' health concerns.
Future design
While NASA is unaware of the microbes in the dust of Mars, the agency is designing combinations for the moon and for Mars, supposed to keep dust away from humans as much as possible, said Lindsay Aitchison, a technologist with 'space. with NASA's Human Landing System program.
NASA aims to send the astronauts back to the moon in 2024, and these astronauts will not use the space suits of the Apollo era. The Apollo suits worked well for short trips of a few days, but the dust ended up being a limiting factor for these missions. The material has penetrated into areas such as wrists, making them difficult to put on and take off. It eroded soft surfaces and clogged zippers. Mobile tools and machinery have also had problems with dust; on Apollo 17, for example, the astronauts were forced to tap an eroded rover fender with a useless map. The alternative was to drive and cover yourself with dust throughout the trip.
In either case, it will be essential to keep the dust away from the astronauts. On Earth, we are used to a soft dust. But on the moon, which is little eroded from our planet, the dust has very sharp sides and quickly nibbles everything around it. On Mars, the problem lies more in the fact that the dust is chemically reactive and contains a potentially toxic compound called perchlorate – not in huge amounts, but in concentrations large enough to pose a health problem for astronauts, Aitchison told Space .com.
Whatever the case may be, NASA is designing combinations that will keep as much dust as possible away from astronauts and equipment in their habitats.
Aitchison explains that there are many ways to contain dust. NASA could use some sort of "costume port" that will permanently dock the astronaut's suits to the outside of the habitat, perhaps to the habitat itself or to to a lunar or martian rover. Although this would keep combinations outside residential neighborhoods, one limitation is to determine how to repair the suits when they are used. Astronauts performing the repair work should use protective suits, which offer more limited mobility than simple shirt work.
Another option is to use innovative technology to keep the dust away from the suit. An idea would use electrostatic charges to repel moon dust (itself electrically charged). The possibilities of repelling dust have been studied in places such as University of North Dakota or the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
When asked if a lunar space suit could be used for Mars, or conversely, Aitchison explained that there might be more similarities than we think. The Moon and Mars have different environments of gravity and pressure, as well as different forms of dust. But Aitchison said the "same basic architecture" could be used for items such as life support clothing or compression garments. Although the design of the space suit varies with the destination of the astronauts, some parts of the system may remain unchanged, reducing the complexity and costs of future space missions.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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