Scientists dare not bring Martian soil back to Earth, why? The consequences can be very serious

In the middle of the last century, the United States and the Soviet Union competed for hegemony on a global scale, whether it was military or economic, and even space. At that time, both the United States and the Soviet Union wanted their own astronauts to conduct the first space flight in human history. In the end, the Soviet Union took the lead. In 1961, the Soviet astronaut Gagarin became the first human in history to enter space, unveiling the history of manned spaceflight.

In the past, it was a ridiculous dream for human beings to enter space, but this successful space voyage successfully made human beings raise their heads and notice the starry sky above their heads. It can be said that Gagarin ignited the enthusiasm of all human beings to explore the universe. All have accelerated the pace of research on aerospace technology. For example, my country launched its first artificial earth satellite in 1970, leaving China's mark on the world's aerospace history. With the rapid development of my country's science and technology, my country has handed over a Excellent answers, from "Dongfanghong No. 1" to "Tianwen No. 1", my country's aerospace industry is in full swing. Other countries are also rapidly developing their aerospace careers, vowing to spread the human footprint across the universe.

In the process of space exploration, some astronomy enthusiasts can't help but ask such questions, can we humans achieve space immigration? Where will we move to? At present, the most likely planet for humans to immigrate to is naturally Mars, because in terms of current space technology, the speed of our spacecraft cannot allow us to fly out of the solar system, so we can only find suitable ones in the solar system. The second home, and Mars, is a planet that scientists have high hopes for. However, it is such an important planet. So far, scientists have not brought back a shred of soil from it, which is confusing. What is going on?

Striking Mars

First of all, let's introduce Mars. What is so special about this planet? Mars is the second-to-last planet in the solar system and one of the four terrestrial planets. Because the soil of Mars is fiery red, it is also called the red planet.

The reason why Mars is a promising planet for human settlement is that Mars is similar to Earth in some ways, such as its magnetic field. We all know that the earth has a magnetic field. The magnetic field is the protective cover of the earth, which can protect the earth from cosmic rays and allow life on earth to flourish.

According to the research of scientists, Mars should have had a magnetic field at a certain period, and the magnetic field is similar to that of Earth. Further observations now prove that there is indeed a magnetic field on Mars, located in the southern hemisphere of Mars.

In addition to having a magnetic field similar to Earth's, Mars' rotation axis tilt angle and rotation period are also similar to Earth's. In addition, Mars has also observed the existence of water. For life, water is an indispensable existence. With water, That means livable. According to the news released by astronomers, we can know that the water on Mars is basically hidden underground, and there are a large number of ice cubes in the ground in the polar and mid-latitude regions of Mars, which are rich in water resources. This discovery is shocking.

In 2021, as my country's Tianwen-1 successfully landed on the surface of Mars, astronomy enthusiasts raised the above questions, why not bring some soil from Mars to study? Wouldn't it be possible to learn more about Mars?

Martian soil

In fact, this is not something scientists can do if they want to, but there are a series of considerations, so they can only give up the idea of ​​taking soil samples from Mars. Why? Let's talk about the moon first. Why can humans collect the soil of the moon but not the soil of Mars?

The moon is the satellite of the earth, the closest star to the earth, and the first witness of human beings stepping into space. After humans successfully walked on the surface of the moon, they collected some lunar soil for research, hoping to find out the development process of the moon and whether the moon was once inhabited by life. There is no atmosphere on the moon, it is completely exposed to the damage of solar wind and cosmic radiation, and the moon lacks something essential for life - water, so life cannot exist in the soil of the moon, and scientists do not need too much However, Mars is different, because scientists speculate that there may be life on Mars, especially the existence of microorganisms in the soil.

We are no strangers to microorganisms. In the earliest stages of the evolution of life on earth, it was microbial life. Today, microorganisms still occupy a place in the region, and even humans, known as the primates of all things, can only choose to coexist with microorganisms. Although microbes are subtle and invisible, their power is not small. They are so powerful that even humans can only be defeated. For example, plague, or influenza, or infectious diseases, almost all are related to microorganisms. After a long period of evolution of life, a delicate balance has formed among various life forms on earth, and microorganisms also maintain a relatively stable relationship with other life forms. If this balance is rashly disrupted, a catastrophe is sure to follow. If nothing else, think about the ecological damage caused by those biological invasions, and you will know the consequences after the balance is broken.

According to scientists' observations and research on Mars, an astonishing conclusion is drawn that there may be life on Mars. The photos of Mars taken by human probes and the existence of liquid water on Mars make scientists tend to believe one thing, that That is, Mars may not be lifeless like the moon, and there is a great possibility that microorganisms exist.

According to the research on Earth's microorganisms, these microbial life are extremely tenacious, and some ancient bacteria that have been frozen for millions of years are still resurrected when they encounter a suitable living environment, so scientists dare not take Martian soil samples easily.

The Martian meteorite found on the earth also proved the scientists' guess. Through research, people found traces of bacteria on the Martian meteorite. It is precisely because of this research discovery that the scientists' original speculation was confirmed. To be cautious.

If there are really microorganisms in the Martian soil brought back, if one is not kept well, it will cause a catastrophe. Because for life on Earth, these microorganisms are, in a sense, a kind of aliens. When scientists don't yet know about Martian microorganisms, rashly bringing them back to Earth will easily lead to a series of accidents such as biological invasion, and even more, it may break the ecological balance that life on Earth has maintained for so many years, setting off a worldwide outbreak Ecological catastrophe, by that time, the Resident Evil that may have appeared in the movie will be released in reality.

For this reason, scientists are not in favor of astronauts rashly bringing back Martian soil. Of course, in addition to concerns about life on Mars, there are other reasons, that is, it is technically difficult to achieve.

technical challenge

The moon is very close to the earth, so it only takes about a month for astronauts to return to the earth after collecting soil samples, but Mars is much farther from the earth, and it takes 300 days for the astronauts to return from Mars to the earth. So how exactly should astronauts preserve soil samples for nearly a year? This has become a century-old problem.

Another key factor is that so far, no astronauts have ever traveled to Mars. Due to the long distance from the Earth to Mars, the time-consuming and the high risk, no country dared to send astronauts there easily, but launched a series of probes. According to relevant statistics, we have learned that humans have launched more than 40 probes to Mars, but not every time has been successful, only less than half of the success rate, which has led to countries not willing to launch manned spacecraft to Mars. . Because it is very difficult for countries to train an astronaut. Astronauts are not Chinese cabbage. Each one is a great wealth and cannot be easily lost.

It is hoped that with the advancement of human science and technology, we will be able to better explore Mars and send astronauts to Mars with extremely low risks. We also hope that in the near future, humans can successfully migrate to Mars and take a step out of the universe. The first step of the journey.