Expulsion of Conan the Bacterium from the Earth due for Re-experimentation by NASA

Deinococcus radiodurans was discovered to withstand radiation. It is a bug, which is known to survive by theory on Mars for more than a million years. The experiment on this bacterium will be redone for assurance against contamination.

A study conducted by Lewis Dartnell at University College London together with his colleagues showed that the specie did survive amidst the average temperature of Mars. The group froze the bugs at -79 degree Celsius then applied gamma rays to kindle the amount the species received below 30 centimetres of Martian soil for long periods of time. Accordingly, the team worked on shrinking a population of the bacteria to the millionth times from its original measurement and solved that it could take 1.2 million years to have them shrink when measured.

“Cold is good in that respect,” says Dartnell. “It improves the chances of cells surviving radiation,” he added.

There were studies conducted earlier that showed the bacterium’s endurance is four times in a Martian cold as at room temperature. Free radicals it creates are less movable if a cell froze and less destruction can be executed even with radiation.

Conan the Bacterium

Dartnell and his team separated three strains of bacteria from places where winter temperatures drop to negative 40 degree Celsius. They got the species from the dry valleys of Antarctica.

A new strain, which is the Brevundimonas appeared to be the sturdiest of the bugs. It could subsist for 117,000 years in Mars with population reduction in a million factors.

Due to the findings of the study, Cassie Conley of  the Policy on Planetary Protection of the NASA in Washington DC stated that, “The more we learn about Earth life, the more likely it appears that it could survive in other parts of the solar system.”

Study Repetition Suggested

In order to ascertain the microbes’ survival on Mars, a study for the journey of terrestrial specie to the direction of Mars must be conducted. Conley says, “In space, you suck off nearly all the water molecules.”

In simulating the spaceflight of the bacterium going to the planet Mars, she suggested that the experiment be redone in a high vacuum. This can also desiccate microbes with any liquids. Water removal could make it harder for the cells to repair the destructions and damages caused by radiation. Thus, it will be minimizing the perils of microbe contamination to other microbes on the account that some of them are incredibly resistant to radiation.

The major benefit of re-experimentation will be to make sure that other planets or stars will not be contaminated.