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Maybe, but not on purpose. Nasa goes to great lengths to sterilize probes going to Mars. http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/technology/is_planetary_protection.html http:
by te_platt 10y ago
Maybe, but not on purpose. Nasa goes to great lengths to sterilize probes going to Mars. http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/technology/is_planetary_protection.html http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/technology/is_planetary_protection....
- pmoriarty 10y agoIf Musk's Mars colonization plans come to fruition, all that trouble NASA went to sterilize their Mars probes will be for nothing.
- erispoe 10y agoPrivate parties still have to comply with planetary protection treaties. In fact any colonization plan, or even commercial flight, to Mars (or anywhere else in the solar system) from SpaceX needs to be approved by the US. It's not a free for all out there, space is governed by treaties. That's a big hurdle to colonization and commercial exploitation. Because it means you have to show you're not contaminating alien life. I would be really excited if we find traces of life on Mars but, at the same time, it would probably delay commercial exploitation and colonization for decades...
- flukus 10y agoThey'll have to comply, but they will probably cut corners.
- erispoe 10y agoIt depends what the US allows them to do, the same way you cannot legally "cut corners" with FDA regulations. Obviously you cannot sterilize astronauts. But they could be restrained to landings outside of the special regions, which are the most promising for astrobiology.