火星巖石樣本可能會(huì)將外星病毒帶到地球

專家警告說，火星巖石樣本可能會(huì)將外星病毒帶到地球

Scientists are preparing for a potential close encounter of the viral kind.

科學(xué)家們正在為這種病毒可能的近距離接觸做準(zhǔn)備。

Researchers say that when humans return from a planned visit to Mars in the 2030s, they’ll have to quarantine because rock samples from the Red Planet could be as dangerous as Ebola — even if the likelihood they are is low.

研究人員表示，當(dāng)人類計(jì)劃在21世紀(jì)30年代訪問火星回來時(shí)，他們將不得不隔離，因?yàn)閬碜赃@顆紅色星球的巖石樣本可能和埃博拉病毒一樣危險(xiǎn)——即使可能性很低。

Rockets returning from Mars will have to undergo a chemical cleaning involving intense heat as well.

從火星返回的火箭還必須進(jìn)行包括高溫在內(nèi)的化學(xué)清洗。

Stanford professor of aeronautics and astronautics Scott Hubbard told the Stanford News that “planetary protection” for Earth must be paramount when welcoming back anyone or anything from Mars.

斯坦福大學(xué)航空航天學(xué)教授斯科特·哈伯德在接受《斯坦福新聞》采訪時(shí)表示，在歡迎任何人或任何東西從火星回來時(shí)，對(duì)地球的“行星保護(hù)”必須是最重要的。

“In my opinion, and that of the science community, the chance that rocks from Mars that are millions of years old will contain an active life form that could infect Earth is extremely low,” Hubbard said. “But the [Mars] samples returned by [NASA] will be quarantined and treated as though they are the Ebola virus until proven safe.”

哈伯德說：“在我和科學(xué)界看來，數(shù)百萬年前火星上的巖石含有一種能感染地球的活躍生命形式的可能性極低。”。“但是(美國(guó)國(guó)家航空航天局)返回的(火星)樣本將被隔離，在證明它們是安全的之前，要像埃博拉病毒對(duì)待。”

Samples returning from this summer’s planned, un-manned Mars 2020 mission involving NASA’s Perseverance Rover will be “baked at a high temperature” before scientists can study them.

今年夏天，美國(guó)國(guó)家航空航天局(NASA)的“恒心號(hào)”(Perseverance)火星探測(cè)車將執(zhí)行火星2020計(jì)劃，在無人駕駛的情況下執(zhí)行火星任務(wù)。返回的樣本將“在高溫下烘烤”，然后科學(xué)家才能對(duì)其進(jìn)行研究。

NASA has said they want to send humans to Mars as early as 2035.

美國(guó)宇航局表示，他們希望最早在2035年將人類送上火星。