Heading for Doomsday 8211; Mars bug threatens Earth

PHILADELPHIA, Feb 16: Rock samples that NASA plans to scoop up from Mars could contain live bacteria or viruses, and scientists are making e...

PHILADELPHIA, Feb 16: Rock samples that NASA plans to scoop up from Mars could contain live bacteria or viruses, and scientists are making elaborate plans to protect Earth from possible microbial Martians.

Several federal agencies are working together to design and build a high-tech laboratory that will protect against a living Mars germ. Such a germ might pose a risk of disease or infection.

Mars was a warm, wet place, perhaps with oceans, some 3.5 billion years ago, at a time when it is believed life was appearing under similar conditions on Earth.

8220;There8217;s nothing about Mars that we know of that would have prevented life from evolving there in the same way it did on the early Earth,8221; Rummel said.

8220;Some Mars microbes could still be living, despite its present hostile environment. We are finding that organisms can live in far more extreme conditions than we once thought possible,8221; said Dr Margaret S Race, a scientist for the SETI Institute, an organisation that specialises in the search forextra-terrestrials.

Earth microbes have been found living inside rocks, in the super-heated water of undersea volcanic vents and in the extreme dry and cold of the Antarctic.

But Rummel, Dr Richmond and others believe it is very unlikely that any living Mars bug could unleash an extra-terrestrial plague on the Earth.

Story continues below this ad

Dr Richmond noted that if microbial life does exist on Mars, it probably has the same genetic pattern as Earth life. He said scientists now know that over billions of years, bits of Mars have landed on Earth, knocked there when asteroids smashed into the red planet. Bits of Earth probably have also landed on Mars. As a result, it8217;s possible that life forms on the planets would have a common origin.

NASA plans to send sample collection robot landers to two different sites on Mars in 2001 and 2003. The machines would collect and store bits of rock, soil, ice and atmosphere. In 2005, another robot craft would be sent to one of the sites to collect the samples and return them to Earth by2008.

The sample would amount to about 500 grams 8212; just enough material to fill an ordinary soft drink can.