Scientists warn that humanity's rapid cosmic activity poses dangers it does not appreciate. We are talking about the threat of invasion by alien organisms and biological infection by extraterrestrial bacteria or other forms of life.
Life in Earth's orbit is teeming with life. In addition to the crews of astronauts constituting the crews of the International Space Station - ISS, ordinary tourists are increasingly sent into space in private spacecraft. In ten years, NASA intends to deliver Martian soil to Earth, Elon Musk intends to colonize the Red Planet, and several countries plan to build full-fledged, long-term bases on the Moon. The risk of transmitting deadly pathogens originating outside Earth to our planet is constantly increasing.
Plans for space exploration and the commercial exploitation of near-Earth space are developing rapidly. This year, two rovers landed on the Red Planet, an American and a Chinese one. Next year, the European Space Agency will also send its equipment there. In the early 1930s, a NASA mission was planned to deliver the first soil samples from Mars.
A little later, Japanese probes will bring samples taken from two Mars satellites - Phobos and Deimos. In the near future, a manned mission to the Red Planet and its gradual colonization also seem inevitable. This means that there may be alien organisms on board one of the many spacecraft that regularly return to Earth. If they find suitable conditions here and do not cope with the threats, their invasion may cause enormous damage to the biosphere of our planet.
An international group of scientists wrote about this threat, whose article was published in the journal BioScience (https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/72/3/247/6413826). According to the authors, a revolution is currently taking place in the exploration and use of space. The global industry of private and public companies seeking to profit from space products or services continues to grow. In addition to space missions, private companies (e.g. SpaceX or Blue Origin) are starting flights under the auspices of national agencies and governments, and space is becoming available to an increasingly wider group of people. Thus, the threat profile related to space activities has changed dramatically.
Scientists divide these threats into two types. In the first case, the threat is alien organisms brought to Earth. This can be compared to an invasion of an isolated continent such as Australia by biological species of animals and plants from other countries and continents. There have been many such cases in the history of Australia - just remember the rabbits that caused enormous damage to the native fauna and flora, displacing local species.
In the second case, the danger is created by terrestrial microorganisms that have flown into space and returned back. The fact is that in extreme conditions of space (extreme temperature changes, radiation, lack of pressure), some protozoa quickly mutate, adapting to a new habitat. Once back on Earth, these microorganisms (for example, fungi or bacteria) can demonstrate unprecedented resistance to antibiotics, and if humans become infected with them, they will be invincible.
The risk of accidental direct contamination of the extraterrestrial environment was recently demonstrated by the Israeli Bereshit lunar apparatus. In 2019, it crashed on the Moon carrying hundreds of tardigrades, invertebrates known for their ability to withstand harsh conditions such as extreme dryness, low temperatures, and high doses of radiation. Suppose they return to Earth one day. It is impossible to predict what properties they will acquire while they are on the lunar surface under the influence of cosmic radiation.
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