Will We Be The Ones Bringing Viruses and Bacteria On Mars ?
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We all know. The search for life in the Solar System, and on Mars in particular, represents a bit of the Holy Grail of human exploration in space.
Almost every mission that starts with the intent to descend on other worlds is in fact accompanied by an emphasis that is usually reserved only for the noblest enterprises. And this is the sign of how great and widespread is in our species the desire not to feel alone in this great universe.
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It's nice, in fact, to know that a large state organization like NASA has in its charter a commitment to search for "life" in the universe. It makes us feel reassured in our beliefs. Doesn't it?
However, there is one thing that not everyone knows, and that is that the last real interplanetary mission conceived and launched to search (for real!) for life on Mars was that of the Viking probes. We are talking about 1976, when the two NASA landers made the only attempt ever to find life on Mars, conducting on site specific biological experiments in search of evidence of microbial life. Experiments that, by the way, even today many biologists believe, contrary to what was stated by NASA, have been successful.
Since then, inexplicably, despite the fanfare that accompanied the departure of every single Martian mission, None of the subsequent landers or rovers sent by NASA to Mars brought with them an instrument capable of following up on those controversial but exciting results...
In short, for nearly half a century now, NASA has pretty much stopped looking for life on Mars. Over the years it has always continued to claim that the purpose of Martian exploration was to find or disprove life, but in fact the probes sent were absolutely unable to fulfill the mission for which they were presented to the world. All subsequent missions to Viking were in fact designed to study the Martian environment from the geological point of view and not to confirm or not that among the sands of Mars there could be microbial life.
But not only that. There's also something else that most people who are passionate about space endeavors probably don't know...
Although completely unsuitable for the search for life, the Martian rovers have always been absolutely forbidden to get closer than 2.5 km from certain places where life could have had the opportunity to find the best conditions to settle!
In practice, while the media was proposing the mantra of "let's go looking for life!", the agencies sent on Mars rovers suitable only for geological exploration, and moreover in places absolutely arid and far from the outcropping points of liquid water. The reason? The protocol of "planetary protection"!
The Outer Space Treaty of the United Nations, in fact, since 1967 prohibits the "dangerous contamination" of other worlds with terrestrial biological forms, and an international organization called COSPAR (Committee on Space Research) establishes protocols for the protection of the planets to which must follow the United States, Europe, Russia and other signatory nations that are going to travel in space.
To protect Mars, since 2002 COSPAR has defined some restricted "special regions" on the planet, where the temperature and humidity could be sufficient to support the life of Martian organisms or terrestrial invaders.
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