Microbe risk when rover wheels hit martian dirt
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 - 09:00
in Astronomy & Space
Earth microbes trying to make it to Mars must survive sterilization in NASA's clean rooms, harsh cosmic rays during months of space travel, and the Red Planet's unforgiving surface environment. But any bacteria that successfully hitchhike aboard the wheels of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission in 2012 might manage to scratch out a brief existence on the martian surface.