4 ms·

There has to be some stage in-between millions of human colonists and the current state though. Also, why Mars specifically? Does this "must be pristine" polic

There has to be some stage in-between millions of human colonists and the current state though. Also, why Mars specifically? Does this "must be pristine" policy also apply to other plants? Not to the moon at least, that's for sure.

fooker 3y ago
It does apply to the moon. Everything we have sent to the moon has been carefully disinfected as far as we know.
- Aardwolf 3y ago
  Even when people visited, opening and closing doors (even if indirectly through an airlock)?
  - KineticLensman 3y ago
    The Lunar Module didn’t have an air lock. They just depressurised and opened the hatch.
  - dotnet00 3y ago
    With the Moon there's at least the argument that any contamination likely couldn't travel too far due to the lack of wind. So any contamination there would just be around the landing site, only going as far as the depressurization might've allowed it to go. Plus since the Moon is exposed to completely unshielded solar radiation, any unsheltered contamination will probably have broken down. Mars on the other hand has wind, is slightly more protected by the atmosphere and increased distance from the Sun and around the equator summers are actually at decent temperatures for life.
jl6 3y ago
It’s not just Mars, but there are nuances and exceptions. There’s a ton of history on why we do this and what the limitations are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_protection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_protection
samus 3y ago
Mars and some other places like Europa are suspected to host or to have hosted life at some point. It's worth applying this policy uniformly because spores are quite hardy and it can be surprising where fragments of contaminated celestial bodies might end up. Even thoroughly scrambled genetic material could influence the development of extraterrestrial microbes whose biochemistry might or might not be compatible with the genetic language of life on Earth.

fooker 3y ago

It does apply to the moon. Everything we have sent to the moon has been carefully disinfected as far as we know.

Aardwolf 3y ago
Even when people visited, opening and closing doors (even if indirectly through an airlock)?
- KineticLensman 3y ago
  The Lunar Module didn’t have an air lock. They just depressurised and opened the hatch.
- dotnet00 3y ago
  With the Moon there's at least the argument that any contamination likely couldn't travel too far due to the lack of wind. So any contamination there would just be around the landing site, only going as far as the depressurization might've allowed it to go. Plus since the Moon is exposed to completely unshielded solar radiation, any unsheltered contamination will probably have broken down. Mars on the other hand has wind, is slightly more protected by the atmosphere and increased distance from the Sun and around the equator summers are actually at decent temperatures for life.

jl6 3y ago

It’s not just Mars, but there are nuances and exceptions. There’s a ton of history on why we do this and what the limitations are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_protection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_protection

samus 3y ago

Mars and some other places like Europa are suspected to host or to have hosted life at some point. It's worth applying this policy uniformly because spores are quite hardy and it can be surprising where fragments of contaminated celestial bodies might end up. Even thoroughly scrambled genetic material could influence the development of extraterrestrial microbes whose biochemistry might or might not be compatible with the genetic language of life on Earth.