14 DAY TRIAL // While we are busy ironing our space suits in anticipation of the day we will finally be able to travel to this planet, some micro-organisms on Earth already have things all figured out and are quite ready for a trip to this part of the universe.
Thus, Science News informs that, according to three recent research papers in the Astrobiology Journal, the risk of interplanetary exchange of organisms between Earth and Mars is not only very much real, but also something scientists should be concerned about.
More precisely, it appears that, according to evidence at hand, it is possible for some organisms to hitch a ride on spacecrafts and reach Mars and contaminate it long before we do.
Should this happen, scientists will have a tough time figuring out if forms of life do exist in outer space, or were merely introduced there.
Experiments have shown that spores of a bacterium known as Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032 are surprisingly tough and can survive exposure to ultraviolet radiation and peroxide treatment as well, both of which are listed among the techniques used to clean spacecraft.
What's more, it turns out that spores of Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032 can also live in harsh environmental conditions similar to those documented on the planet Mars.
“After testing exposure to the simulated Mars environment, we wanted to see what would happen in real space, and EuTEF (the European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF) gave us the chance. To our surprise, some of the spores survived for 18 months,” explains Kasthuri J. Venkateswaran.
Other experiments have shown that both spores of Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032 and one other spore-forming bacterium called Bacillus subtilis 168 can survive outer space- and Mars-like conditions, provided that they are not exposed to UV radiation.
This means that, if somehow shielded against solar radiation either by a layer of other spores or inside a small pocket of the spacecraft surface, spores of these two bacteria could, in fact, survive a journey to the Red Planet, scientists explain.
Interestingly enough, it turns out that this is also evidence to suggest that rocks originating from one planet and traveling through space might carry life on their surface and have it colonize other celestial bodies that they chance to come across.
The researchers behind these studies recommend that future investigations focus on means to limit the risk of interplanetary exchange of organisms. More so given the fact that the one of the goals of space exploration is to try and find life on other planets, not carry it there.