Since the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972, mankind has abandoned distant manned expeditions for several decades. But in the foreseeable future, the situation may change. Several states and private companies are working on sending people to the Moon, Mars and even planning to land on asteroids.
Such activity outside low-Earth orbit significantly increases the health and life risks of space travelers. However, scientists suggest that it is the accidental death of an astronaut that can sow life on other worlds.
Microbiologist Gary King of the University of Louisiana in the United States believes that the human body is an ideal container for delivering bacteria and a basic set of organics to distant planets. Under certain circumstances, microbes inside a corpse will be able to survive for a long time in the harshest space conditions, especially on planets such as Mars.
King specializes in the study of microorganisms that inhabit the most extreme places on our planet. Based on the collected data, he worked out a number of scenarios during which an accident could contribute to the spread of life in the solar system, and maybe beyond it.
“We pulled out microorganisms from the permafrost that remained alive in a state of suspended animation for about one million years. Such bacteria can easily transfer flight to nearby planets, as well as some non-spore-forming microbes,”the scientist says in an interview with Astronomy Magazine.
As an example, the researcher cites an extremophile microorganism of the species Deinococcus radiodurans, which is one of the most radiation-resistant organisms on the Earth, and can also survive practically without water.
True, in order for death to give rise to a new life, a number of conditions must be met. Firstly, if the death of an astronaut occurs during the flight, the body must remain inside the spacecraft to enter the planet's atmosphere. And after a fall, the tightness of the body of the apparatus must be broken so that microorganisms can spread beyond its limits.
In addition, for long-term preservation of the viability of microbes, they need periodic access to water molecules, which is possible at temperatures above freezing point or under freeze-drying conditions, when water passes from a solid to a gaseous state, bypassing the liquid.
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It is easier for microbes to survive within the solar system, since during a long flight to neighboring stars, for example, to Proxima Centauri, they will be significantly more exposed to radiation, King notes. Cosmic radiation in interstellar space will cause changes in DNA and RNA molecules, which will hinder the further development of bacteria.
But King believes that even in the event of the death of all microorganisms, a set of organic substances in the body of a dead astronaut can help the emergence of new living beings on another planet. True, for this, the body must get to the surface of the world, where ideal conditions already exist for the development of life, but some key elements for its origin are missing.