Lead
Since NASA first brought astronauts back from the moon in 1969, human space exploration has a new development goal, that is, to explore planets farther away from the earth, and in the process of space exploration, human beings have indeed lived up to expectations and are constantly moving towards the depths of the universe.
But in human space exploration, there is a project that has been carried out for more than half a century, but it has never been realized, that is, to bring Martian soil back to Earth for research, and although this project has been carried out for more than half a century, why has it never been realized?
First, technical problems.
The first thing to overcome in order to bring Martian soil back to Earth is the technical difficulties, one of the biggest of which is the energy required to recover the process.
Normally, when we want to bring an object back to Earth from the gravitational range of the planet, the usual approach is to send the object closer to the Earth, which saves energy and requires less energy to bring the object back to Earth.
This is the case with the process of taking soil samples from the Moon and bringing them back to Earth, where the Moon is only 384,000 kilometers away and its gravitational pull is only 1/6 that of the Earth, so very little fuel is needed to bring it back from the Moon.
Mars is 3.85 billion kilometers away from Earth, and Mars' gravitational pull is 1/3 that of Earth, which means that if you want to bring Martian soil samples back to Earth, you need a lot of fuel.
That is why, at the current level of technology, humans are not yet enough to bring Martian soil back to Earth.
But why bring Martian soil back to Earth, after all, according to the current level of science and technology, probes can be used on Mars to analyze and study samples, so why bring Martian soil back to Earth?
In fact, this is because the scientific research facilities on Earth are more complete, and the number of scientific researchers is also larger, which means that it takes less time to conduct research on Earth, and the depth of research is also greater, so it is better to bring Martian soil back to Earth for research.
2. Biosecurity concerns.
In addition to the technical difficulties, another reason why humans have not yet brought Martian soil back to Earth is the fear that the samples brought back could pose a threat to life on Earth, and although the environment on Mars may not pose a danger to life on Earth, scientists still do not want to take this risk, because there may be life on Mars that scientists do not know about.
In 1967, the U.S. Congress initiated a study on biosafety in space, and the central question of the study was, what would happen if we brought Martian soil back to Earth?
The study ultimately concluded that if Martian soil were brought back to Earth, it could endanger the safety of life on Earth.
In 2008, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences also published a report on biosecurity in space, which concluded the same as the 1967 report, that is, if Martian soil is brought back to Earth, then it may endanger the safety of life on Earth.
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences also stated in the report: "Even if the rover is of the highest standard of cleanliness, it is difficult to guarantee that there are no organisms on the rover that could pose a danger to life on Earth, so we should not bring Martian soil back to Earth for research."
But for scientists, the safety of life on Earth is naturally the most important, so although scientists very much hope to be able to bring Martian soil back to Earth for research, in order to ensure the safety of life on Earth, scientists have to abandon this idea.
3. Highly toxic substances that may be contained in the soil.
In addition to the possible existence of unknown life forms, scientists have a greater concern that the soil of Mars may contain highly toxic substances that pose a great threat to life on Earth.
In 2008, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences published a report on biosafety in space, which stated: "There may be substances in the soil on Mars that are harmful to life on Earth, so when bringing soil samples from Mars back to Earth, you need to be very careful to avoid accidents."
And scientists are even worried: "If the soil from Mars is brought back to Earth for study, there is a risk of triggering a catastrophic fire and even the collapse of the Earth's ecosystem."
This is because the soil on Mars contains harmful substances, for example, the content of hydrogen peroxide in the soil on Mars is intolerable to Earth, hydrogen peroxide is a strong oxidizing agent, when the substance containing hydrogen peroxide encounters a higher temperature, it will burn, and as the flames spread, it will eventually burn the entire environment.
So how much hydrogen peroxide is in the soil on Mars?
According to research, the hydrogen peroxide content in the Martian soil is about 0.1%, and this value will continue to rise under some special conditions, which means that only 1/1000 of the Martian soil is enough to burn the plants on the earth, and when the hydrogen peroxide content in the Martian soil reaches 1%, it is even possible to burn the earth's atmosphere.
In addition, there is a highly toxic substance in the Martian soil, that is, perchlorate, perchlorate is a substance that is strongly corrosive to life on Earth, and the content of soil containing perchlorate on Mars is not low, which means that if the soil of Mars is brought back to Earth, then it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive detection of these hydrogen peroxide and perchlorate, and this detection is very difficult, because the technology on Earth has not been able to comprehensively detect hydrogen peroxide and perchlorate in the Martian soil.
epilogue
Despite the technical difficulties and biosafety concerns of bringing back soil samples from Mars, humans still have not given up on this goal, it is reported that NASA has detected the existence of water on Mars, which means that there may be life forms on Mars, and at the same time, NASA is also working on the development of a soil sample returner, which is currently in the testing stage.
Although it is not technically possible to solve this problem at present, mankind has not given up on this goal, and with the continuous advancement of science and technology, the dream of bringing Martian soil back to Earth will one day be realized.
But scientists should always remind themselves that in the process of space exploration, they must carefully weigh the technical issues and ethical issues, after all, while exploring Mars, we should also avoid the impact of human activities on the Martian ecosystem, after all, we are moving forward on the road of exploring the unknown world, not on the road of development and colonization.