At 09:16 PM 3/13/01 -0800, you wrote:
>I figure earth-based microbes have as much chance of out-
>competing Europa microbes asEuropa microbes have of
>contaminating earth. They evolved there, they have home
>field advantage. I doubt we pose a realistic risk. spike
Dare we take even the smallest avoidable risk? Sterilization of the probe
should be a fairly simple matter...sterilize every part upon delivery,
build the works in an isolation room (positive pressure!), seal it in a
plastic cover before transport to the launch vehicle. I am assuming the
probe would be shuttle launched, or inside a fairing for the boost phase.
I recall talk of the early Mars probes being possibly contaminated and
giving erroneous results in the onboard bio tests...
Chuck Kuecker
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:59:40 MDT