As has been thoroughly reported on , Elon Musk – perhaps amusingly , perhaps prodigally , count on yourperspective – found a cherry tree - red Tesla Roadster into space a few calendar week back .
It ’s lately been guess that there ’s a6 percent chancethat it ’ll re - enrol our planet ’s atmosphere within the next million old age . This would be tremendously preferable to it crashing anywhere else though : As pointed out by research worker at Purdue University , that Tesla is probably covered in terrestrial microbe , and an impact anywhere other than Earth could result in some rather undesirable taint .
We do n’t yet know if Mars presently harbors spirit , nor can we say whether spirit has ever existed on our rust - touch neighbor . The more we learn about microbial biota , however – particularly itsresilienceandubiquityon our own world – the more likely one or both of these pick seem .
Incidentally , the power of microbes to survive extreme environmental condition intimate that any clinging to the runabout may endure their tenacious , backbreaking journeying through quad . If – despite being constantlybombarded by organic material - clean irradiation – said car and its payload did collide with Mars , it ’s undecipherable as to what would happen next .
In aposton the university ’s internet site , Alina Alexeenko , a prof of aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue , opined that “ The load of bacteria on the Tesla could be take a biothreat , ” or , instead , “ a backup written matter of life on Earth . ”
Professor Jay Melosh , an expert in world , atmospheric , and planetary science , suggested that “ If there is an indigenous Mars biology , it ’s at risk of being pollute by terrestrial life .
“ Would Earth ’s being be better adapted , take over Mars and contaminate it so we do n’t know what endemic Mars was like , or would they be not as well adapted as the Martian organisms ? ” Melosh mused . “ We do n’t jazz . ”
Space representation are notoriously cautious when it comes to issues of inadvertent contamination . Spacecraft specifically designed to research other worlds up close are comprehensively sterilized before they venture forth .
Those that are n’t are often purposely piloted into the atmospheres of the Solar System ’s accelerator pedal colossus to control theirutter annihilation , so as to forbid them from accidentally collapse - landing on a inhabitable world . Musk ’s car for sure falls into this family , but unlike other spacecraft , it ’s itinerary through the arctic shadows is now determined not by us , but by natural forces alone .
It ’s presently in an ovate orbit around the Sun , one that will cut across the Martian orbit twice every18.8 months or sofor the foreseeable future . It ’s highly unlikely that the two-seater will ultimately careen into the Red Planet , but if it does , we can all shake our collective fist at Musk , dependable in the cognition that there ’s nothing we could have done ourselves to prevent the interplanetary slaughter .
