How do we prevent contamination of Mars during manned trips?

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willpittenger

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We sterilize everything going to Mars now. But how do we do that with manned missions? You can't sterilize the human body like you can a robot. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>
 
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vogon13

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Superperoxides in Martian dust are excellent disinfectants for earthian germicules.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>
 
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willpittenger

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But they might still confuse the equipment that gets serviced after its arrival. Besides, I can just see a few extremophiles hitching a ride. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>
 
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docm

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They probably already have. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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Boris_Badenov

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Can the superoxides in Martian dust sterilize the grodies in a human doot? Simply disposing of human waste seems like a good way to begin contaminating any Martian landing site. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>
 
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scottb50

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Putting a human on Mars is the same thing as putting microbes on Mars, in the broad sense. <br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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h2ouniverse

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in reply to "Superperoxides in Martian dust are excellent disinfectants for earthian germicules. "<br /><br />Yes, but non-GM homini sapientes on Mars would have to dig and live underground to be safe from radiations. By several meters.<br /><br />
 
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radarredux

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We will contaminate Mars (and maybe have already done so, but it will really accelerate with humans). Consider how much effort NASA is putting into limiting the amount of Mars dust that gets into the habitat, and then you realize how many germs will also go out for each trip.<br /><br />Also consider that something like 90% of the cells in your body have DNA other than your own, so there are going to be a lot of bugs hitching a ride to Mars.<br /><br />Also, we have found that bugs can be incredible hardy and highly adaptable. Once we started looking seriously for such organisms on Earth we have been finding them in the most extreme conditions imaginable (google "extremeophiles").<br /><br />Craig Ventor in a 2005 TED presentation talked about a fairly common organism that can take 3 million rads of radiation blowing its DNA apart, but then it can repair its DNA in about a day! He shows a slide of a glass beaker containing this organism being heavily damaged by the radiation but the organism is living just fine.<br /><br />If you are interested in the Craig Ventor talk, see the link below (the radiation resistant organism discussion starts at about 11:40 into the talk):<br />http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/6<br />
 
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radarredux

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Also, consider the case of Surveyor 3 on the Moon. The crew of Apollo 12 retrieved the camera from the Surveyor 3 mission, and upon examination back on Earth, NASA discovered the bacteria Streptococcus mitis.<br /><br />If the bacteria wasn't a product of later contamination, then this bacteria "survived launch, 3 years of radiation exposure, deep-freeze at an average temperature of only 20 degrees above absolute zero, and no nutrient, water or energy source."<br />http://science.nasa.gov/NEWHOME/headlines/ast01sep98_1.htm
 
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