As a child of the 1960’s Space Program I’ve always been very excited by the JPL robotic missions to Mars, Jupiter and beyond. Seeing closeup views of Jupiter and its moons or Saturn was mind-boggling for a science fiction junkie of my generation. Now the Mars Rover missions always seemed a little disappointing because the landscape just looked like Nevada without the gambling. But I had no idea at the time that I was witnessing a crime against the Cosmos.
You see we were guilty of planetary cross-contamination in the first degree! I didn’t know we were guilty until I read this ridiculous article. But now I’m hoping that somehow, we’ve already wiped out all the extraterrestrial lifeforms in the solar system solely because I know it would devastate Sofia Quaglia, the authoress of this drivel and all the space ecology weenies that she consulted on this fake crisis.
Now, understand. I highly doubt that any organisms that can’t trace their ancestry to Earth will be found elsewhere in the Solar System. But if I have to worry about them succumbing to the COVID virus then my take is they deserve extinction. These geniuses want to somehow ensure that the probes we send up are somehow 100.0000% sterilized of all biological organisms. This would probably end the space program. And if it didn’t, it would require enormous expense to add all these requirements to the missions.
But what makes it especially stupid is that Earth organisms have most probably found their way to other parts of the Solar System without our help. Not that any of them probably were able to thrive on Mars or the moons of Jupiter. But if they did are we supposed to be worried about it? And if these terrestrial descendants somehow outcompeted the native Martian or Jovian flora and fauna should this upset me for some reason? Well, if it’s supposed to then I have a bulletin; it’s not working. I don’t care. If these extra-terrestrials are such lame losers that they can’t survive e. coli, then they deserve to go extinct. Let them get on the ball and discover penicillin like we did. And anyway, seeing them all wiped out is the surest defense against them catching up with us on the evolutionary ladder and pushing us off. As the Legionnaires in Galaxy’s Edge put it KTF, kill them first.
Honestly, don’t these snowflakes have anything more important to do than fret about space paramecia being outcompeted by their terrestrial cousins? Lord help us.
If there are any organisms on Mars, they have already survived the Martian (lack of) atmosphere, hard radiation from the sun, lack of water and extreme temperatures.
I doubt they will be fazed by a common Earthly bacteria and I doubt the Earthborn pathogens can survive the aforementioned Martian conditions.
Concern level – Zero.
Think of the children, the extra-terrestrial children!