R.I.P. Scout26
We humans are known to be pretty generous with our germs. Just as the transatlantic explorers of old unknowingly brought diseases with them to the so-called New World, it turns out NASA sent the Curiosity rover to Mars with its own germs — 377 strains of 65 bacteria species, to be exact, according to a recent analysis of swabs taken before the rover launched.The discovery will go toward making future missions cleaner, as well as revealing a little more about the crazy stuff life can endure.A Buggy RoverDespite the rigorous scrubbing all NASA machinery gets before launching, it’s inevitable that some bacteria will persist. After Curiosity’s cleaning (which admittedly could have gone a little better) researchers swabbed the car-sized rover’s surfaces to see what bacteria they might have missed. And a few of the stowaways seem likely to have survived the trip to Mars. As a Nature News story puts it:Most were related to the genus Bacillus. In the lab, scientists exposed the microbes to desiccation, UV exposure, cold and pH extremes. Nearly 11 percent of the 377 strains survived more than one of these severe conditions. Thirty-one per cent of the resistant bacteria did not form tough, protective spore coats; the researchers suspect that they used other biochemical means of protection, such as metabolic changes.
So: scientists analyzed swabs in 2013 or 2014 for a rocket launched in 2011. Very timely!"Seems like these scientists could easily qualify to get jobs in the VA system.
It is not easy to sterilize things outside of an enclosed space. Sterilizing sensitive scientific rigs is extremely hard.
I'd of thought that eight and a half months of cold and radiation would've ...scoured(?)the bugs clean.
Here little green fella, how about a nice fuzzy blanket?
