How can I prevent extraterrestrial viruses from being brought back to Earth? Scientists release NASA’s planetary protection strategy

Now, according tomedia, people are in the midst of a global health crisis — a virus that seems to have come from somewhere. The last thing we need to do at this point is to worry about extraterrestrial viruses invading Earth after sleeping millions or billions. This may not be a problem for ordinary people, but it is a real problem for scientists eager to study the rocks and matter that are brought back to Earth from Mars.

How can I prevent extraterrestrial viruses from being brought back to Earth? Scientists release NASA's planetary protection strategy

NASA does not yet have specific data on manned missions to Mars, but it is already studying a network of sample-gathering, which will bring the first fresh Martian soil to Earth. The Perseverance rover will have the ability to collect and seal samples that are expected to be brought back to Earth one day.

Scott Hubbard, from Stanford University, is a former director of NASA’s Ames Laboratory and a scientist specializing in planetary conservation. In a recent interview, he discussed in detail the rigorous precautions needed to ensure that the Planet was not invaded by extraterrestrial microbes.

While the idea of planetary protection is simple, it is practically two-way. In other words, on the one hand, we don’t want the microbes or forms of life on Earth to pollute other planets, and we don’t want to accidentally bring extraterrestrial life back to our planet. As for how to ensure that neither of these things is apparently very complicated.

“I’ve heard from some of my colleagues in the field of human space that they can see that in the current environment, the public may be more concerned about bringing back some foreign microbes, viruses or contaminants,” Hubbard said. “

Hubbard is one of many scientists involved in evaluating NASA’s Planetary Conservation Strategy Report. The report details how NASA protects other planets from pollution.

“In order to prevent return pollution, the main task is to ‘break the chain of connections’ between the returning spacecraft and the Martian rock samples. For example, there are plans to use autonomous sealing and welding techniques to create three to four-layer containers,” Explains Hubbard.

“In my opinion and in the scientific community, the possibility that rocks from the rocks of millions of years ago from Mars contained forms of active life that could infect the Earth is very low. But samples brought in by MSRs will be isolated, treated like Ebola virus and proven safe. “