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If there is life on that planet, I wonder if it would be similar enough to host infectious diseases. I know the Apollo team was quarantined when they got back f
by afarrell 11y ago
If there is life on that planet, I wonder if it would be similar enough to host infectious diseases. I know the Apollo team was quarantined when they got back from the moon. As someone living on a continent that has undergone one apocalypse, I hope we have a similar procedure to prevent the spread of spacepox.
- humanfromearth 11y agoIf there is life there is probably bacteria and viruses. But it's unlikely they would be harmful for us. They need to match our platform.
- tartuffe78 11y agoThey would need to match our platform to perform the mechanisms they have evolved for, but not necessarily to have adverse effects.
- jfoster 11y agoNew bacteria probably wouldn't be resistant to antibiotics. The bacteria on Earth is likely far more dangerous.
- stormcrowsx 11y agoIt'll be a very long time before we could reach any other planet. We may kill ourselves off long before its even a possibility for us to get spacepox.
- jfoster 11y agoSeems unlikely that anything would be physically going there and back any time soon. We haven't even been able to get some soil from Mars back to Earth yet.
- stcredzero 11y ago1) NASA already has such procedures. 2) Some types of molecules involved with life have chirality so the chances are small that our biological components as a whole would be compatible. (Think of it as several different kinds of "endianess." There would be a coin-flip for each molecule type with chirality.) So at worst, if we ate each other, we'd give each other molecular "indigestion." More complicated operations, like that of viruses hijacking our cells to replicate themselves are probably right out. Invading foreign cells couldn't get very far in our bodies if all of their enzymes malfunction and they find our material "indigestible."