Mars Curiosity Question

[Magic]

Hey Guys,

Me and my friend were talking about space earlier and a thought just popped into my head and my friend could not think of the answer either. I am just wondering if someone here could answer it for me?

As there is no life or bacteria on Mars, what would happen to the bacteria that was actually on the Curiosity as it landed on mars?

I know there are many ways to get rid of most bacteria however I am just very curious what NASA used. would all bacteria die on it's journey to the planet or was the Curiosity made of special material - or would the bacteria die on Mars?

I'm just not sure If anyone could help me out that would be great, thanks!

Magic.

[Guest]

I believe that it was built in a clean room and subjected to UV light and other cleaning processes prior to launch.

[dtr42]

would imagine there will be bacteria on the curiosity however dont know if they would survive a martian winter or the space flight tbh

[VigdisVZ]

First, there is -probably- no bacteria on mars but there might be, we'll just have to wait and see until we've been there or atleast sent a complex enough rover with enough intstruments to say for sure or a sample return capacity.

Some microbes have been able to whistand space as proven by experiments. Also, the theory of panspermia ie that life was seeded from other planets by meteors throwing up rocks is pretty popular among scientists.

There is almost certainly some microbes left on curiostiy, wheter or not they survived space, or if they will even thrive on mars is anyones guess, it all depends on the bacteria (you cannot assume that each type of bacteria has the same characteristics) but it's possible in theory.

[Capricorn]

Curiosity will have been launched very clean, but there would be no way for it to be completely clean. It will have been built in a clean environment but then it is transported to the launch site, maybe in a big box but that is not a clean room. Then it is taken out of the box and put on the launch vehical, again not clean. Even if wrapped at the transport stage it has to be unwrapped sometime.

Another consideration is that Curiosity is not the first thing to have been sent there. Earthlings have been throwing an assortment of objects at Mars for a number of years and I would be sure that they were not clean. It would be more sensible to assume that cleanliness to the degree satellites are now simply was not a consideration.

Actually it is a bit amazing that someone hasn't actually sent a vial of bacteria to Mars to determine if it can survive there. It would be one of those experiments or questions that someone somewhere must have considered or asked.

[ubertank]

I read a news report that said a particular part of the Rover had been contaminated actually.

http://news.sky.com/story/983271/mars-fears-curiosity-will-contaminate-planet

[Mr Q]

What a let down that would be - billions spent on the rover to find there was microbes on Mars - ours :grin:

[Naemeth]

We are not even 100% sure where life is not on Earth, we can't say with certainty where there is no life, and in places we thought were completely lifeless have actually turned out to have life when we thought it wasn't possible. E.g.:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20501574

We can't say where life is not on Earth with 100% certainty, so we cannot say (with 100% certainty) where life is not in the rest of the solar system, although it's probably not in the core of any planet. It's a bit too hot and the pressure is a bit too high.

[Magic]

Very interesting Facts and theories. I personally think there must be bacteria that has made it to Mars. Capricorn your point really has got me thinking that there has been many Earth made machines that have made it to mars... has human bacteria always lived on mars since the first man made object to land on the planet