Quote:
Originally Posted by renormalised
That's why they assemble space probes in sterile cleanrooms. One sneeze is all it takes, or one ungloved, unsanitised hand to touch a probe, and the next minute we've got forests of super bugs growing on the surface of Mars!!!!. Or maybe we do get invaded by Martians, only they're originally refugees from Earth. Or maybe they start having kids with the locals and the resulting bugs end up really souped up, then we start hearing...."No one would've believed, that in the last years of the 21st Century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space......."!!!.
Earth bacteria would have no problems surviving on Mars or in many other places in the solar system.
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Here's more on clean rooms:
"NASA study will help stop stowaways to Mars"
http://www.physorg.com/news107608651.html
"Clean rooms used in the space program already undergo extensive cleaning and air filtering procedures, and the detection technology employed in this study will help NASA to develop and monitor improvements. Still, it is extremely difficult to eliminate all dust particles and microbes without damaging the electronic instruments the process is intended to protect."
...
"Clean rooms are considered extreme environments for microbes because water and nutrients are in extremely short supply. Nevertheless, some bacteria are able to survive on what little moisture the low-humidity air provides and on trace elements in the wall paint, residue of cleaning solvents, and in the spacecraft materials, themselves."
I guess the original post confirms the last paragraph.
Cheers