Dirty Curiosity Rover Is Dirty Starfleet has one Prime Directive: There can be no interference with the internal development of alien civilizations. NASA could be thiiiiiiis close to violating it. Thanks to a mixup in construction of the Curiosity rover, a drill bit was pre-loaded on the rover’s sample collection arm. This way, just in case the loading mechanism broke on landing, we’d still get one round of samples. Only problem is the drill bit wasn’t sterilized. Even though Gale Crater, the landing site, isn’t known to hold any water (like the Martian poles do), if it happens to find some? There’s a small but not insignificant chance that Earth microbes could be rehydrated and deposited on the red planet. More details at Smithsonian Smart News. (image by Astronit/Flickr)
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Dirty Curiosity Rover Is Dirty

Starfleet has one Prime Directive: There can be no interference with the internal development of alien civilizations.

NASA could be thiiiiiiis close to violating it. Thanks to a mixup in construction of the Curiosity rover, a drill bit was pre-loaded on the rover’s sample collection arm. This way, just in case the loading mechanism broke on landing, we’d still get one round of samples. Only problem is the drill bit wasn’t sterilized.

Even though Gale Crater, the landing site, isn’t known to hold any water (like the Martian poles do), if it happens to find some? There’s a small but not insignificant chance that Earth microbes could be rehydrated and deposited on the red planet.

More details at Smithsonian Smart News.

(image by Astronit/Flickr)

Source: blogs.smithsonianmag.com

103 Notes/ Hide

  1. companioncube76 reblogged this from howstuffworks
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  6. supersagan reblogged this from astrotastic and added:
    Oooh nooo
  7. bananacrunch reblogged this from jtotheizzoe and added:
    interesting… I really did love that Doctor Who ep
  8. conrolder reblogged this from jtotheizzoe and added:
    12 billion years ago, the news had this to say
  9. abareis reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  10. billiondollarbooty reblogged this from jtotheizzoe and added:
    FUCK!!!! FUCK FUCKF UCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKF!!!! JESUS CHRIST FUCKING DAMMIT WHY
  11. sanchinto reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  12. astronomywhore reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  13. saikyodinosaur reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  14. sarahsanne reblogged this from the-naut and added:
    Terraforming anyone?
  15. rainydaymoonshine reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
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  19. andythebiomedicalvampireslayer reblogged this from astrotastic and added:
    That’s a big oops…
  20. spesadinfinitumetultra reblogged this from astrotastic and added:
    NASA. You had…10 x 10^50 jobs.
  21. ziptart reblogged this from project-argus
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  23. astrotastic reblogged this from project-argus

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