Sagitta Cantina

How many remember Michael Crichton's book, the Andromeda Strain?

NASA is planning on sending an explorer to a local asteroid and returning it with samples to Earth NASA Prepares to Launch First U.S. Asteroid Sample Return Mission. While I m sure they will take all precautions for isolation of the return vehicle, what happens if an accident occurs?

I remember it. I think it was his first big seller.

I'm sure our current situation would never allow such a thing to happen.

Commander wrote:I'm sure our current situation would never allow such a thing to happen.

So long as they don't use Dan Goldin's infamous, "Better, faster, cheaper" (pick 2) methodology to design the mission and end up putting in the parachute deployment g-switches in upside down, I think it'll be alright.

Tons of asteroid and cometary material land on Earth every single day and has for billions of years and will continue to do so until the planet is a burned out cinder-- we're still here...

While the "Andromeda Strain" makes for a good piece of fiction, in reality the risk is vanishingly small-- in all likelihood would have occurred already. I CAN see the advantages of more isolation protocols for Mars samples, as it's much more statistically likely that any life-forms present might be more compatible environmentally and with our life forms and could be a potential pathogen.

Later! OL J R

While it is true that we have been deluged with space dust, it hasn't received a ride down before in a protected compartment. Compare with someone riding up from the depths in a submarine.

Well, the interior or nooks and crannies of meteorites that have arrived from Mars might be sufficiently shielded to protect any bacteria in spore form from being destroyed, if there's any bacteria on Mars to make the trip in the first place.

Later! OL J R

We've already been visited by the Andromeda strain and here is the result:

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-0 ... pants2.jpg