NASA says that some terrestrial organisms could temporarily survive on Mars
Fungal and bacterial organisms in the stratosphere in 2019 as part of the MARSBOx experiment
The stratosphere, the second main layer of Earth’s atmosphere above the ozone layer, has conditions very similar to those of the red planet and is the perfect place to send samples to see if they would survive on Mars, Engadget reported.
Now the scientists have published an article with their results. discussing how the black mold spores survived the journey.
The microorganism was only able to live temporarily on the Martian surface, be precise, but the researchers found that the spores could revive when they returned.
The team placed fungal spores of As Pergillus niger and Salinisphaera shabanensis, Staphylococcus capitis subspecies capitis and Buttiauxella sp. MASE-IM-9 bacterial cells inside the aluminum MARSBOx container (or microbes in the atmosphere for radiation, survival, and biological results), with the bottom one being shielded from radiation so NASA can separate the effects of radiation from the effects from other environmental conditions.
A NASA balloon carried the container into the stratosphere, where the samples were exposed to Martian conditions and more than a thousand times more ultraviolet radiation than sunburn.
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Aspergillus niger, which survived the trip, means for space travel Katharina Siems, A team member from The German Aerospace Center said:
“In long-term manned missions to Mars, we need to know how microorganisms associated with humans would survive on the Red Planet, as some could pose a health risk, and some Microbes could be used for space exploration. It will be invaluable in helping us produce food and materials regardless of the land, which will be vital from far from home. ”
The agency wants to make sure that organisms or other contaminants are not carried without know him from earth to other worlds, as this could jeopardize the quest. Bring him home from another.
The world could also have a negative impact on our environment. Siems said that experiments like the MARSBOx mission “are a really important way to study all the effects of space travel on microbial life and how we can advance this knowledge into amazing space discoveries.”