[meteorite-list] Dealing with the back contamination problem

[E.P. Grondine]

Hi Rob -

"Xeno biology????"

They call it astrobiology.

"If life ever began on Mars, I believe that it will still be there. The climate cannot have changed quickly enough to extinguish microbial life and it should thrive there not just cling on to existence."

Given the radiation environment, perhaps below the surface, near the frozen clathrates (water). If you think about it, perhaps such organisms would the remnant magnetic field to navigate, as you point out...

"I accept that the magnetite found in "martian fossils" could be a local adaptation of martian bacteria to localised magnetic anomalies and that these could coincide with methane emissions discovered recently.

"What I object to is the constant use of these principles (though I accept them, I do not believe them) to suggest that we cannot send a manned mission to Mars.

"The very idea that a martian microbe could be pathogenic when it would be clearly adapted to a cold dry environment is absurd."

No, not really. Adapted to a hostile environment, it could thrive in a more favorable one. No planetary protection officer is going to sign off until there is a firm answer.

"I would bet my life on Mars being sterile."

The consequences are too high for bets. 

We simply don't know, and long range rovers are the only way to clear this hurdle to manned exploration.

"Even if I turned out to be wrong, I'd go double or quits on any Martian vector being unable to attack a Terran organism kept in an environment akin to it's home (eg humans at room temp and pressure)"

It doesn't have to be us, but our environment.

I covered this for years. The old Soviet plan for Marse Piat with the TNK in Martian orbit was to sterilize samples from the surface and then look for their remains. That's in the real world, not in Zubrin's rationalizations.

Rob, I think we can both agree with Dr. McKay's comments on the need for study of martian meteorites and their scientific value.

"Rob Mc"

E.P.