4 ms·

How can we ensure not 1 of the quintillion spores it will pick up upon interaction with earth will not survive transport and contaminate Europa?

XorNot 2y ago
The surface of Europa is hard vacuum and its not landing there, with several miles of ice to the ocean. It's as protected from contamination as it's ever going to get.
jermaustin1 2y ago
We can't any more so than any other lander/prob/rover we've sent. And will it really matter when we eventually (probably not in our lives) send people there anyway. All their body-biome and other contaminants will come with them, too. We are going to contaminate the solar system with humans eventually. A spore that may survive and MAY be viable is the least of the Europa's problem.
- kevindamm 2y ago
  Humans I'm not so sure, but fungi maybe.
- hinkley 2y ago
  Human cells only account for half of the cells in your body. We are bioreactors.
Mistletoe 2y ago
We do hydrogen peroxide rinses of everything, but there are some organisms that can survive even this. I worked with some of them like B. pumilus that came back from the space station and exposure to space. Incredible resistance to hydrogen peroxide. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22680694/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22680694/ https://astrobiology.com/2014/05/space-station-research-studies-exposure-of-life-to-vacuum-of-space.html https://astrobiology.com/2014/05/space-station-research-stud...
- FredPret 2y ago
  If an organism can survive a hydrogen peroxide bath, all our other sterilization methods, then a multi-year space trip bathed in UV rays and general radiation, then re-entry into Europa, and then proceeds to colonize that world... it deserves to.
  - hinkley 2y ago
    It might already be there hitching a ride on a rock. Saturn and Jupiter have so much gravity the center of mass of the solar system can be outside of the sun when their orbits align. Who knows where the debris of the K-T event ended up.
    - FredPret 2y ago
      Correct me if I'm wrong but is this (panspermia) the justification given in the Star Trek canon of why all the aliens have two arms, two legs, can speak, and speak English? Regardless, it'd be extremely cool to have some distant cousins swimming around that far away. It'd also be extremely cool to find completely unrelated life.
      - hinkley 2y ago
        My take is that fungi have built most of Nature. They are the first farmers. So if the right branch of the fungal kingdom and anything else lands on a planet, you’ll get the rest eventually.
        FredPret 2y ago
        If by "the rest" you mean complex life, sure. If you mean "aliens" that speak English with an accent but look suspiciously like human actors in funny hats... well, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief.
        hinkley 2y ago
        Star Trek is - I love it but still - kinda bullshit that way. The Hainish model is more likely. Attempt at galactic empire fails completely, and hundreds or thousands of generations later some civilizations who remember their origins reacquire the ability to travel between systems and attempt to remind each other that we are all brothers even though we have evolved very different traits.
cruffle_duffle 2y ago
I mean odds are good it already happened a long time ago. Some space crap crashed into earth, spewing some rock covered in microbes into space where it eventually collided with Europa. We have identified plenty of space crap from other planets and moons in our solar system that crashed into us. Granted the environment on our space probes is a little different than a shattered rock sent from an impact event but still…
twic 2y ago
Follow the guidance of your Planetary Protection Officer: https://sma.nasa.gov/sma-disciplines/planetary-protection#planetaryProtection_guidance https://sma.nasa.gov/sma-disciplines/planetary-protection#pl...

XorNot 2y ago

The surface of Europa is hard vacuum and its not landing there, with several miles of ice to the ocean. It's as protected from contamination as it's ever going to get.

jermaustin1 2y ago

We can't any more so than any other lander/prob/rover we've sent. And will it really matter when we eventually (probably not in our lives) send people there anyway. All their body-biome and other contaminants will come with them, too. We are going to contaminate the solar system with humans eventually. A spore that may survive and MAY be viable is the least of the Europa's problem.

kevindamm 2y ago
Humans I'm not so sure, but fungi maybe.
hinkley 2y ago
Human cells only account for half of the cells in your body. We are bioreactors.

Mistletoe 2y ago

We do hydrogen peroxide rinses of everything, but there are some organisms that can survive even this. I worked with some of them like B. pumilus that came back from the space station and exposure to space. Incredible resistance to hydrogen peroxide. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22680694/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22680694/ https://astrobiology.com/2014/05/space-station-research-studies-exposure-of-life-to-vacuum-of-space.html https://astrobiology.com/2014/05/space-station-research-stud...

FredPret 2y ago
If an organism can survive a hydrogen peroxide bath, all our other sterilization methods, then a multi-year space trip bathed in UV rays and general radiation, then re-entry into Europa, and then proceeds to colonize that world... it deserves to.
- hinkley 2y ago
  It might already be there hitching a ride on a rock. Saturn and Jupiter have so much gravity the center of mass of the solar system can be outside of the sun when their orbits align. Who knows where the debris of the K-T event ended up.
  - FredPret 2y ago
    Correct me if I'm wrong but is this (panspermia) the justification given in the Star Trek canon of why all the aliens have two arms, two legs, can speak, and speak English? Regardless, it'd be extremely cool to have some distant cousins swimming around that far away. It'd also be extremely cool to find completely unrelated life.
    - hinkley 2y ago
      My take is that fungi have built most of Nature. They are the first farmers. So if the right branch of the fungal kingdom and anything else lands on a planet, you’ll get the rest eventually.
      - FredPret 2y ago
        If by "the rest" you mean complex life, sure. If you mean "aliens" that speak English with an accent but look suspiciously like human actors in funny hats... well, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief.
        hinkley 2y ago
        Star Trek is - I love it but still - kinda bullshit that way. The Hainish model is more likely. Attempt at galactic empire fails completely, and hundreds or thousands of generations later some civilizations who remember their origins reacquire the ability to travel between systems and attempt to remind each other that we are all brothers even though we have evolved very different traits.

cruffle_duffle 2y ago

I mean odds are good it already happened a long time ago. Some space crap crashed into earth, spewing some rock covered in microbes into space where it eventually collided with Europa. We have identified plenty of space crap from other planets and moons in our solar system that crashed into us. Granted the environment on our space probes is a little different than a shattered rock sent from an impact event but still…

twic 2y ago

Follow the guidance of your Planetary Protection Officer: https://sma.nasa.gov/sma-disciplines/planetary-protection#planetaryProtection_guidance https://sma.nasa.gov/sma-disciplines/planetary-protection#pl...