Believe it or not, NASA has at least one employee whose job is environmental protection on Mars.  Seriously. At the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Catharine A. Conley has a lofty job title: planetary protection officer. Thousands, millions, sometimes many times more, bacteria travel across the solar system on spacecraft. Earth has been invading Mars since November 1971, when the Soviet Mars 2 lander crashed. Certainly life exists on Mars today — the microbes that have hitchhiked from Earth. Even in the harsh environs of Mars — cold, dry, bombarded by ultraviolet light — it takes many years for all of them to be killed off. The concern is that some of them might not only survive but thrive. There are no animals on Mars.  No Martian rabbits.  No Martian deer, no Martian antelope, no Martian Pomeranians.  There are no plants on Mars.  No Martian lettuce.  No Martian carrots.  No nothing.  We...(Read Full Post)