(September 11, 2017 at 2:41 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote: This effort to avoid contaminating the moons of gas giants is pretty ridiculous. If in the staggeringly unlikely event the earth microbes on the probes survive the trip there, through countless orbits through radiation belts before the probe finally impacts with a moon, the impact, and the conditions on the moon, and then establish a durable colony, I would say we were just given the very first long shot at ensuring some earthly life will survive the extinction of life on earth.
In 3-4 billion years, even before the sun becomes a red giant and eventually engulf the earth, what we deliver by accident to the gas giants may be the last remaining vestige of life from earth.
Why take any chances at all?
