This is a balanced take. If anyone doubts, you should read up on the scrubbing/cleaning NASA has to do on their rovers before sending them to Mars.
You know how that bottle of alcohol-based sanitizer says it kills ‘99.9%’ of all bacteria? Well 99.9% still leaves billions of the bastards behind. It’s the same for the UV treatment they do. And the ionic plasma jet. And the 8 or 9 other steps they take. And they’re really still not convinced every time they detect an organic on the surface of Mars we didn’t bring it with us by accident, have them make it through the vacuum of space and the hard radiation for the 18 month trip, and just release a handful of still living super resistant bacteria onto the surface.
i remember reading an article that said, in 1 g of agricultural soil, we find 10⁹ bacteria, while in 500 m depth below the surface (!) that reduces to a mere number of 10⁶ bacteria xD
This is a balanced take. If anyone doubts, you should read up on the scrubbing/cleaning NASA has to do on their rovers before sending them to Mars.
You know how that bottle of alcohol-based sanitizer says it kills ‘99.9%’ of all bacteria? Well 99.9% still leaves billions of the bastards behind. It’s the same for the UV treatment they do. And the ionic plasma jet. And the 8 or 9 other steps they take. And they’re really still not convinced every time they detect an organic on the surface of Mars we didn’t bring it with us by accident, have them make it through the vacuum of space and the hard radiation for the 18 month trip, and just release a handful of still living super resistant bacteria onto the surface.
EDIT: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-microscopic-fungus-survived-nasas-sterilization-protocols-and-is-hardy-enough-to-potentially-contaminate-mars-180988728/
Love it.
i remember reading an article that said, in 1 g of agricultural soil, we find 10⁹ bacteria, while in 500 m depth below the surface (!) that reduces to a mere number of 10⁶ bacteria xD
deep biosphere