[meteorite-list] Life's Rocky Road Between Worlds

From: Martin Horejsi <martinh_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:44:12 2004
Message-ID: <B74BD082.19CB%martinh_at_isu.edu>

Hi Ron and David,

Is there some public relations mechanism at work here as well. Remember when
Stardust launched and we were at an "closed" KSC mission briefing when the
"Andromeda Strain" thing came up. A joke was cracked and then everyone
noticed the CNN camera crew.

I just wonder if some of the extreme concern over extra-terrestrial
containment is so we can appear extremely concerned in case anyone asks? I
really have to believe that if there was some deadly virus or microbe that
might hitch a ride back to earth, no scientist in their right mind would 1.
Think it a good idea to bring it to earth, and 2. Believe that humans could
actually contain it.

Cheers,

Martin




on 6/12/01 1:42 PM, Ron Baalke at baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov wrote:

>
> You bring up some good points.
>
>> "The long term average transfer rate of 150kg of hospitable rocks per
>> year,
>> with 7% of resident microbes surviving (if any were present in the rocks
>> at
>> the time of launch), is equivalent to a series of space missions that
>> return samples of about 10 kg of Martian rocks each year under protected
>> conditions that are favourable to the survival of any life within the
>> rocks."
>
> To date, we haven't found any surviving microprobes in any of the Mars
> meteorites.
> ALH84001 only involved potential microfossils.
>
>> So what makes the small samples returned to Earth by our spacecrafts so
>> threatening?
>
> The main difference is the amount of time the samples spend in space enroute
> to Earth. For the typical Mars meteorite, it would have been in space for 15
> to 30 millions years before it landed on Earth. For a sample returned by
> spacecraft, the sample would only spend a few months in space enclosed in a
> container. Any Mars organisms, if present, would have a much higher likelihood
> of surviving the trip from Mars to Earth in a spacecraft than in a Mars
> meteorite.
>
> Ron Baalke
>
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Received on Tue 12 Jun 2001 03:58:26 PM PDT