Bugs in Space: Can They Survive? Posted: 9 months ago by AutumnLotus
Catching a free ride to Mars takes more than sticking out a thumb, but some hardy Earth bacteria could survive as hitchhikers clinging to the outside of spacecraft, studies have shown. Now a set of experiments going up with space shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station will test how exposure to the harshness of space might change bacteria during a simulated Mars mission.
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Posted: 9 months ago by pocksucket:
« AutumnLotus : Bugs in Space: Can They Survive?

Catching a free ride to Mars takes more than sticking out a thumb,
Unless the thumb is an electronic sub-etha signalling device.
Score: [-] 72 [+].
Posted: 9 months ago by rambler:
"We are interested in understanding what types of damage are induced in cells and their DNA by exposure to space, what types of mutations may be induced, and how these mutations might drive evolutionary adaptation to the extreme selective environment of Mars,"...
Hmmm... maybe some earthborn bacterium was carried through space onto Mars in the tyre tracks of the aptly-named "Opportunity", mutated as a result of solar radiation, into an extremely thirsty and hungry species (no water or food on the trip), passed through a wormhole or something else to get it back into our time, and ended up starring as the bloodthirsty and hungry Alien with Sigourney Weaver.
Sounds like a "plot" out of a Douglas Adams book, all you need to make it possible is a spaceship with an infinite improbability drive.
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