LSU Biological Sciences professor John Battista has received a NASA grant and is helping plan an eventual mission to Mars, an LSU news release said.
Mars, the earth’s closest planetary neighbor, is under the watchful eye of many governments.
With two U.S. and one Japanese spacecraft already orbiting and three more craft on the way, the race to Mars will soon be crowded.
One of the main concerns of the NASA mission to Mars is that Martian soil samples will be contaminated with some microbe, Battista said.
For the answer to this problem, NASA turned to one of the University’s own.
“About three or four years ago, I submitted a grant proposal,” Battista said. “They [NASA] gave me money for a preliminary project in 1999, and I was awarded the grant in the spring of 2000.”
Battista is one of the world’s leading experts on the minute organisms Deinococcus radiodurans, a Latin name meaning “amazing radiation-enduring berry.”
“It’s a type of bacteria,” Battista said. “And for reasons we can’t define, it can survive massive amounts of gamma radiation.”
Battista said the Deinococcus radiodurans are much like what NASA expects could be found on Mars. The microscopic organisms can survive much of what a Martian microbe would have to endure.
“If we’re going to bring specimens back from Mars, we have to take every precaution possible to prevent any organisms that might be living in them from getting loose on Earth,” Battista said in the news release.
By subjecting Deinoccocus radiodurans to intense gamma radiation, Battista is slowly learning how to protect Earth from possible Martian infection.
The news release said samples brought back from the Red Planet by spacecraft will be transported to a maximum-security facility – much like those used for our most deadly organisms, such as the Ebola virus.
According to the NASA Web site, a manned mission to Mars could be set in motion by September 2007.
Protecting those visiting Martian soil and those returning home is a top priority for Battista.
“If you can’t effectively sterilize the outside of a spacecraft, then you could contaminate the entire world,” Battista said.
Battista’s research will help detect life on Mars but also could help in future manned missions
“They [NASA] certainly seem hell bent on getting there,” Battista said. “If we are going to send a manned mission to Mars, we want to make sure that our astronauts are safe – we have to be this cautious.”