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Thoughts on Bio Contamination

Hello all,

Without getting into an Andromeda Strain scare, lets put a little more
thought into possible biological contaminants from Mars. Let's forget
about contagious bacteria and viruses and consider other life forms.

Imagine an alga-like organism that mutates easily to adapt to rapidly
changing conditions on Mars. It uses a very dark green, almost black
chlorophyl like substance to produce food from carbon dioxide, minerals,
small amounts of water and weak sunlight. Because of the weaker
sunlight, it uses the higher end of the spectrum, into the violets and
ultraviolet. Reproduction is by airborne spores as wind is the only
transport mechanism available to it. Essentially a very hardy organism
that is kept in check by a low resource availability.

NASA gets as sloppy decontaminating material returned from Mars as it
has been sending material to Mars and some of these organisms make it
back to Earth. Either through mutation or adaptation the organism
survives. It not only survives, it explodes, because all the resource
limitations are gone. It doesn't interact with Earth life and nothing
here is interested in eating it. The organism spreads out of control
rapidly and has only one serious flaw as far a we're concerned. It loves
to grow on the leaves of out plants, because it can get everything it
needs. Anyone who has looked at a stagnating pond or kept live plants in
an aquarium knows where this is going. Our Mars organism is blocking
sunlight from all the plants it grows on and the plants die in a few
days. If not controlled it will start killing off crop plants,
rainforests and other plant life. What is it? How do you control it?

An unlikely scenario? Most likely, but is it worth ignoring the
possibility?

Gene

STUARTATK@aol.com wrote:
> 
> << > Walter -
>  >     Welcome to the "science" of the "Let's send men to Mars" space
>  > enthusiasts.
>  >     The most significant reason for not sending men
>  > to Mars is the problem of biological contamination:
> 
>  >> Hash. There is no threat of 'back contamination'. Any microbes from Mars
>  are going to be completely different from those of Earth. I cannot
>  believe that they could even survive in such a different environment as
>  Earth. It is like suggesting that if you dropped off a shark onto the
>  Serengeti it would outcompete the lions. The whole idea is nonsense, and
>  sharks and lions live on the same planet! I suggest you go and quiver in
>  fear from real threats, like Dutch Elm Disease and Tobacco Mosaic virii. >>
> (Gene)
> 
> As one of the aforementioned "Lets send people to Mars" space enthusiasts -
> something I'm proud and keen to admit to - I'd just like to say HURRAH GENE!
> Common sense about back contamination at last... !!
> 
> We have to go to Mars for heaven knows how many reasons - and no, I'm not
> going to list them here, or get drawn into a grand debate about manned Mars
> exploration, this isn't the right forum for that, so let's not start that
> thread, hmm? - one of the best, I still say, being the harvesting of
> meteorites from the surface (the subject of my very first posting, if I
> recall, a lifetime ago..!), because we'll find samples there unobtainable
> anywhere else. And I still maintain that even when samples of martian rock are
> physically returned to Earth, by probes or in the pockets or sample bags of
> astronauts, Mars meteorites will hold their value simply because they got here
> the Hard Way, i.e. being blasted off the surface and travelling thru space...
> 
> Stuart
> 
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