Humans May Have Contaminated Mars ... With Life

“Clean rooms might serve as an evolutionary selection process for the hardiest bugs that then may have a greater chance of surviving a journey to Mars. These findings have implications for a form of planetary protection called ‘forward contamination’. This is where we might bring something (accidentally or on purpose) to another planet.”

Spacecraft are meticulously sterilized in clean rooms to minimize the potential of taking unintended bacteria to space, but recent research suggests that we might already have accidentally “forward contaminated” Mars. Based on the speed with which microbes can mutate, it’s even possible that years from now if (or when) we do discover “life” on Mars, it might have evolved from something we brought there in the first place. Talk about a space paradox story ...