The isolation to which NASA subjected the lunar astronauts and the soil brought was done for show, and did not protect the Earth from possible infection if microbes were actually living on our satellite. This conclusion, after studying the archives, was made by an American researcher, published article in the journal Isis.
When US President John F. Kennedy announced the Apollo program to land a man on the moon in May 1961, no American had ever been in space. Nevertheless, after having mobilized enormous resources, the United States managed to land the first expedition on the surface of the Moon in July 1969.
NASA faced the most difficult technical challenges associated not only with flight, landing astronauts on the moon and returning them alive to Earth. It was important to prevent the possible introduction of terrestrial microorganisms to the Moon, as well as to exclude contamination of the Earth by microbes that could have lived on the Moon. At that time, scientists did not have a precise idea of ​​the nature of the lunar surface. And even though in the 1950s most experts were inclined to believe that the Moon was absolutely lifeless and geologically dead, some scientists allowed the presence of microorganisms on its surface. Much like astronomer Carl Sagan, who believed that if the early Moon was similar to ancient Earth, microorganisms could grow on both bodies and exist on the Moon, for example, below the surface where solar radiation does not reach.
Nasa
Therefore, particular attention has been paid to the problems of protecting the Earth from microbes imported from the Moon, as well as astronauts and returning spacecraft, to NASA.
In total, more than 100 million dollars were spent on isolating astronauts, lunar soil and equipment delivered from the Moon. For this, a huge lunar reception laboratory was built, in which, at the time of the return of the first Apollo 11 landing expedition about 200 employees, about 100 NASA specialists and external scientists.
Dagomar Degroot, a historian of science and environmental issues at Georgetown University, studied a large amount of archival material and came to the conclusion that efforts to protect the Earth from possible microbial contamination were not not sufficient and often mimicked the actual protection of the planet.
“The quarantine protocol only seemed successful because it was unnecessary,” the researcher concluded. He concluded that NASA management was aware of the lab’s imperfections, and that repeated inspections and tests revealed damage to glove boxes and autoclaves, which were used to handle objects and lunar soil.
Due to the violation of the tightness of the autoclaves, on August 3, 1969, that is, 10 days after the return of the astronauts, 24 employees of the laboratory itself had to be quarantined. “Over nearly a year, tests and simulations revealed critical issues with the autoclaves, and federal authorities repeatedly warned that they needed to be addressed urgently. But before the return of the Apollo 11 astronauts, the command module, the film cassettes and the samples, there was no longer enough time. If Apollo 11 had brought microbes from the moon, they most likely would have spread,” the study states.
“It ended up becoming a planetary security spectacle,” said Jordan Bimm, a science historian at the University of Chicago who was not involved in the study.
The author gives a table in which he collected recorded and possible incidents in which lunar organisms, if they existed, could have spread throughout the laboratory and the planet as a whole.
So, despite all precautions, already on July 25, laboratory personnel without protective equipment came into contact with the lunar soil.
On the same day, depressurization of the dirt collection bag was observed. On July 30, peracetic acid (a disinfectant) was found in a sample of lunar soil, and on July 31, in a vacuum chamber, employees managed to tear off the gloves of the space suits used during the walk on the moon.
“These reports show that the lab experienced near-daily containment incidents that were largely hidden from the public,” the findings state.
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At the same time, the very way the astronauts returned from the expedition put the planet at risk of infection. Their lander was originally designed to be vented when descending over the ocean. As early as 1965, NASA asserted that the agency had a moral obligation to prevent possible pollution, even if it meant increasing the mass, the cost of the mission, or postponing it. However, no changes were made to the design, and after 4 years the ship was blown up during its descent through the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. “If there were lunar organisms capable of reproducing in Earth’s oceans, we’d be in trouble,” said John Rummel, NASA’s two-term planetary defense officer.
“Dr. Degroot’s archival research also showed that NASA management knew that lunar microbes posed an existential threat and that their lunar quarantine likely did not guarantee Earth’s safety, if such a threat existed. In any case, they overestimated their ability to neutralize this threat. writes the New York Times. This space-age narrative, according to Dr. Degroot’s article, is an example of science projects downplaying hard-to-manage existential risks in favor of solving easier problems. This provides valuable lessons as NASA and other space agencies prepare to take samples from Mars and other space bodies in the solar system.
According to Degroot, the tendency to underestimate existential risks is characteristic of American bureaucracy and has already manifested itself in the case of global warming, nuclear weapons and the dangers of artificial intelligence.
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