* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Sterilising spacecraft

Blobrana · L

NASA's robot explorers may have been destroying the signs of life on Mars, say researchers.
When the twin Viking landers, sent on the planet in 1976, failed to detect even minute quantities of organic compounds, scientists were puzzled because even if Mars has never had life, comets and asteroids that have struck the planet should have scattered at least some organic molecules - though not produced by life - over its surface.
Many scientists have suggested that organics were cleansed from the surface by naturally occurring, highly reactive chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide.

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Blobrana · L

Planetary scientists are looking for new ways to sterilise their spacecraft, so that they won't be excluded from exploring interesting places
In 1975, the twin Viking landers sped off to Mars as the most sparklingly clean things ever put into space. If either was to have any chance of detecting microbial life in its scoops of Martian soil, it couldn't risk carrying stowaways from its launchpad at Cape Canaveral.

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