Of course , we ’re all excited about findingliquid piquant wateron the surface of Mars . But any outlook of post a bird of passage or even man to study these mini " river " might have to be dampened ( sorry ) , owe to issues of contamination .
The moody streaks known as recurring slope lineae ( RSL ) all but support liquid water is present on the surface . Such part , though , are likely to be designated " Special Regions " by the Committee on Space Research ( COSPAR ) . These are places where only a unfertile lander would be allowed to visit as perplanetary protectionrules , preserve them safe from Earth microbe , and potentially ruling out man missions or a rover like Curiosity .
" The job [ of explore habitable regions of Mars ] is not explode rockets , shrinking budgets , political gamesmanship or fickle public support , " Lee Billings writes forScientific American . " Rather , the job is animation itself – specifically , the persistence of Earthly germ , and the likely frangibility of Martian ones . "
The foresightful run here are think to have formed by flowing water on Mars . NASA / JPL / University of Arizona .
A recentjoint reviewfrom the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the European Science Foundation suggest that our current efforts to keep these areas devoid from contamination from Earth mightnot be enough . Under the principle , to explore such a area a spacecraft must be meticulously sterilized , sum year and meg of one dollar bill to development time . But there ’s no guarantee it would keep Mars free of land - based life-time ; how surefooted could we be that a detection of life there was not a stowaway from Earth ?
This , of line , puzzle an even greater problem for manned missions ; you ca n’t precisely sterilize a man . " If astronauts shall only be allow to visit subpar locales to research for life on Mars , can NASA or any other entity justify the tenner to hundreds of gazillion of clam expect to send them there?“notesBillings .
Others have evoke the convention on contaminant might betoo stringent , but at the moment , rules are rules . So do n’t herald the discovery of water on Mars yet ; it might just have reduced the number of interesting location that we can feasibly shoot the breeze , without accidentally tread in a pond of germ .
[ H / T : Scientific American ]
