Protect Planet Earth against microbes of doom from Mars - FT.com
We need an urgent reappraisal of how we defend the integrity of our biosphere.
Fabulous discoveries are often followed by exceedingly dull paperwork, such as the checking and rechecking of data, graphs, statistical analyses and conclusions. This week’s announcement that scientists had found evidence of briny water on Mars will have had many experts reaching for the small print of Nasa Policy Directive 8020.7G.
The directive is required reading for those who send spacecraft to hunt for extraterrestrial life. It codifies the etiquette for “planetary protection” — preventing earthlings and their emissaries from contaminating their celestial bodies (known as forwards contamination), and arguably more importantly, guarding against the encroachment of alien microbes into the terrestrial biosphere (backwards contamination).
While the concerns about our germs hitchhiking to other worlds date back to the 1950s, this week’s revelation — and its implications for the possibility of life elsewhere in the solar system — should prompt an urgent reappraisal of how we maintain the absolute integrity of both the Martian and terrestrial biospheres.
The evidence for water flowing on the red planet was gathered by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a Nasa spacecraft launched in 2005, with images that showed dark streaks down the walls of a crater. The streaks were found to carry the infrared signature of hydrated salts, which is regarded as a proxy for water.
Excerpt only....more at site
___________________________________________________________________________________
Yes, let's think Andromeda Strain, folks!
We need an urgent reappraisal of how we defend the integrity of our biosphere.
Fabulous discoveries are often followed by exceedingly dull paperwork, such as the checking and rechecking of data, graphs, statistical analyses and conclusions. This week’s announcement that scientists had found evidence of briny water on Mars will have had many experts reaching for the small print of Nasa Policy Directive 8020.7G.
The directive is required reading for those who send spacecraft to hunt for extraterrestrial life. It codifies the etiquette for “planetary protection” — preventing earthlings and their emissaries from contaminating their celestial bodies (known as forwards contamination), and arguably more importantly, guarding against the encroachment of alien microbes into the terrestrial biosphere (backwards contamination).
While the concerns about our germs hitchhiking to other worlds date back to the 1950s, this week’s revelation — and its implications for the possibility of life elsewhere in the solar system — should prompt an urgent reappraisal of how we maintain the absolute integrity of both the Martian and terrestrial biospheres.
The evidence for water flowing on the red planet was gathered by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a Nasa spacecraft launched in 2005, with images that showed dark streaks down the walls of a crater. The streaks were found to carry the infrared signature of hydrated salts, which is regarded as a proxy for water.
Excerpt only....more at site
___________________________________________________________________________________
Yes, let's think Andromeda Strain, folks!
