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Stowaway's Survival on Mars?
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Jun 08, 2005 Some hardy Earth microbes could survive long enough on Mars to complicate the search for alien life, according to a new study co-authored by University of Florida researchers. Though scientists looking for life on Mars worry about contamination from stowaway spores clinging to spacecraft, the inhospitable Martian environment is actually an effective sterilizing agent: The intense ultraviolet rays that bombard the Martian surface are quickly fatal to most Earth microbes. However, the new study shows that at least one tough Earth species, a type of blue-green algae called Chro-ococci-diopsis, could live just long enough to leave a biological trace in the Martian soil - creating a potential false positive. The study appears in the current issue of the journal Astrobiology and was co-authored by Charles Cockell of the British Antarctic Survey and UF research assistant professor Andrew Schuerger, a Mars astrobiologist and plant pathologist at UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Schuerger is one of several UF researchers associated with the Kennedy Space Center's Space Life Sciences Laboratory, where he investigates how Earth microbes might survive, grow and adapt in simulated Martian conditions. "It's very possible that we could send viable micro-organisms to Mars and then bring some of those same Earth bugs back with us," Schuerger said. The researchers examined a dry-tolerant and radiation-resistant algae that thrives in Earth's most extreme conditions, from the hot, arid Negev desert in Israel to the frigid Antarctic Ross Desert. This bacterium has not been found on the surfaces of spacecraft, but it represents a worst-case scenario for scientists. "The only way to find out (if there's life on Mars) is by going there and studying it, yet we take with us the potential to contaminate our own studies," said John Rummel, NASA's current Planetary Protection Officer. NASA created the Planetary Protection Office to safeguard against transferring potentially harmful organisms to or from Earth during space exploration.
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