New Report Urges Extreme Caution Against Infection When Landing on Alien Worlds - Will cancel missio - Polidicks

[QUOTE]As Earth humans begin to seriously consider sending missions to icy worlds like Europa and Enceladus, one of the necessary concerns has to be protection of the environment where such a mission would land. [B]It would be a shame to arrive on a fascinating alien world only to immediately seed it with Earth microbes, carelessly infecting the local ecosystem[/B], ruining the unique scientific opportunity and possibly incurring the wrath of the local alien ruler. A new assessment by the Space Science Board looks at which destinations are most in need of protection from microbes -- Europa, Enceladus, Titan, and Triton, it concludes -- and sets out a series of protocols for deciding how and where best to assess and deal with the risk. [quote]COSPAR [Committee on Space Research] guidelines require that less than 1 in 10,000 missions will deliver a single viable microbe that is able to grow on a solar system destination, i.e., a 10-4 probability of contamination per mission flown. Failure to meet this mandated objective could impose requirements for more stringent cleaning or terminal bioload-reduction procedures comparable to that employed by the Viking missions. In extreme cases, satisfying planetary protection requirements might require spacecraft redesign [B]or cancellation of an entire mission.[/B][/quote] The report is available as a free PDF [url=http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13401]here[/url]. [/QUOTE] Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-04/new-report-urges-extreme-caution-against-infection-when-landing-alien-worlds[/url]

There's also the risk of, if there's microbes there, we being the ones that get murdered up.

so fucking what? just gas all our equipment with anti-bacterial prior.

mandatory germ-x bath before you leave the ship problem solved

We need to hit them before they can hit us

[QUOTE=Amplar;35656056]so fucking what? just gas all our equipment with anti-bacterial prior.[/QUOTE] Because, like it says on any cleaning product, it may only kill "99%" of bacteria. That 1% could be just enough to hurt the ecology of alien worlds. Is 1% worth the risk?

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;35656295]Because, like it says on any cleaning product, it may only kill "99%" of bacteria. That 1% could be just enough to hurt the ecology of alien worlds. Is 1% worth the risk?[/QUOTE] Ayup.

We should worry about fucking up other eco systems so we don't repeat what we've done at home.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;35656295]Because, like it says on any cleaning product, it may only kill "99%" of bacteria. That 1% could be just enough to hurt the ecology of alien worlds. Is 1% worth the risk?[/QUOTE] uh that whole 99% thing is just put on hand sanitizers so they can't get into legal trouble if somebody claims that it didn't work

Not attempting landings on europa?

I really think that it isn't worth the risk. I am all for space exploration, but when it comes possibly damaging an ecosystem, it's better that we keep it safe and have less knowledge about it than knowing a large amount of information about a dead alien environment.Better safe than sorry right?

[QUOTE=Aurora93;35656416]uh that whole 99% thing is just put on hand sanitizers so they can't get into legal trouble if somebody claims that it didn't work[/QUOTE] If that's the only thing you thought about, my point went over your head.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;35656295]Because, like it says on any cleaning product, it may only kill "99%" of bacteria. That 1% could be just enough to hurt the ecology of alien worlds. Is 1% worth the risk?[/QUOTE] You could very well be thorough enough to completely sterilize a piece of equipment. Despite the costs, this is an alien world we'd be going to, so we're obligated to keep it clean.

It's the truth though, one fuck up and you just pretty much swept an entire planet.

Reminds me of this: [quote][img]http://cdn.bitrebels.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Earth-Mars-Moon-Human-Destruction.jpg[/img][/quote] Couldn't find the original comic

I don't see anything wrong with wanting to be more responsible and sensible about exploration. I mean shit, look at what exploration did in the "old days", we literally spread decease and almost wiped ourselves out.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;35656295]Because, like it says on any cleaning product, it may only kill "99%" of bacteria. That 1% could be just enough to hurt the ecology of alien worlds. Is 1% worth the risk?[/QUOTE] I'd think Nasa has the budget for better antimicrobials than clorox

[QUOTE=ZombieWaffle;35656993]You could very well be thorough enough to completely sterilize a piece of equipment. Despite the costs, this is an alien world we'd be going to, so we're obligated to keep it clean.[/QUOTE] One does not simply fully sterilise a piece of equipment, especially not the sort of shit that has to go into space since there's extremophilic bacteria that would easily survive just about everything you can do to it. [editline]21st April 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Greenen72;35657110]I'd think Nasa has the budget for better antimicrobials than clorox[/QUOTE] Extremophilic Bacteria would like a word with you.

I thought War of the Worlds already covered this material.

[QUOTE=Aurora93;35656416]uh that whole 99% thing is just put on hand sanitizers so they can't get into legal trouble if somebody claims that it didn't work[/QUOTE] No it's not, that's an urban myth, it says 99% because at the moment some microbes are so small that it's impossible to determine with our current technology if they've been killed or not. This is why we need to be careful with the sort of things mentioned in the OP.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;35656295]Because, like it says on any cleaning product, it may only kill "99%" of bacteria. That 1% could be just enough to hurt the ecology of alien worlds. Is 1% worth the risk?[/QUOTE] Consider 1% of 50 million bacteria on your skin, that's 500,000 bacteria remaining... per square inch! 99% isn't really as impressive as it sounds. Our skin probably won't be in direct contact with anything, but I'm just trying to illustrate the problem with the 99% mentality. When you're dealing with large numbers, such as bacteria, 99% ceases to be enough. [quote=Wikipedia]The skin supports its own ecosystems of microorganisms, including yeasts and bacteria, which cannot be removed by any amount of cleaning. Estimates place the number of individual bacteria on the surface of one square inch (6.5 square cm) of human skin at 50 million, though this figure varies greatly over the average 20 square feet (1.9 m2) of human skin. Oily surfaces, such as the face, may contain over 500 million bacteria per square inch (6.5 cm²). Despite these vast quantities, all of the bacteria found on the skin's surface would fit into a volume the size of a pea.[11][/quote]

microbes in space

But you've got millions of microbes inside you at all times. In your stomach, in your throat, in your bowels. If you fart on Europa...

[QUOTE=Maloof?;35658390]But you've got millions of microbes inside you at all times. In your stomach, in your throat, in your bowels. If you fart on Europa...[/QUOTE] If you fart on Europa your space suit will stink.

[QUOTE=Amplar;35656056]so fucking what? just gas all our equipment with anti-bacterial prior.[/QUOTE] Because there's bacteria that can survive in the vacuum of space, and just about any extreme you can imagine. I don't think some Gas is going to kill all of it

Wasn't it said that the chances of two different forms of life with different origins would have completely different... everything? Er, I think I'm reading this wrong. It's to prevent some sort of bacteria that consumes something useless on earth consuming something majorly important on another planet (or moon)? Not anything parasitic? That'd be understandable.

I'd say an even bigger worry is them bringing the bacteria back to Earth.

[QUOTE=carcarcargo;35658806]I'd say an even bigger worry is them bringing the bacteria back to Earth.[/QUOTE] And the red weed clung to wherever there was water. :tinfoil:

It seems impossibly unlikely, but it's good that they take the precautions. This is entire worlds, y'know.

Well I bet when we're actually going to a planet like this we will have significantly better technology, so we will hopefully have a solution for this when the time actually comes.