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How likely is it that we have already accidentally "contaminated" other planets or moons, despite procedures to prevent this? It seems unlikely to be possible

• 3eb7988a1663 1y ago
  Tardigrades (crash) landed on the moon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beresheet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beresheet
• Mistletoe 1y ago
  It’s pretty likely or at least plausible. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2011.0738 https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2011.0738 I worked with these organisms from the space station. Their resistance to things like hydrogen peroxide (what we wash space probes with) is incredible.
• jjk166 1y ago
  Big difference between "some organisms hitched a ride and didn't immediately die" and "we created a self sustaining ecosystem that will spread across a wide area in a human relevant period of time." The venn diagram of organisms that can survive on mars, those that can use martian conditions to produce all the energy and nutrients they need to survive long term, and those that would be likely to contaminate a spacecraft likely doesn't have a lot of overlap.