Eli5: If creatures such as tardigrades can survive in extreme conditions such as the vacuum of space and deep under water, how can astronauts and other space flight companies be confident in their means of decontamination after missions and returning to earth?

Question

My initial post was related to more of bacteria or organisms on space suits or moon walks and then flown back to earth in the comfort of a shuttle.

In: Biology

Answer 1

Who cares, it’s space. There’s nothing there that can hurt you. It’s like going to the Atacama desert and worrying about how you will avoid drowning, or going to antarctica and worrying about how you will avoid dying of heatstroke. Of all the places humans go, space is literally the absolute least likely one to produce deadly disease or dangerous microbes.

Answer 2

Your question now makes *me* question: if a water bear got in ones bloodstream, could it survive *in* us????

Answer 3

There are clean rooms where you have to wear protective suits when spacecraft are being built, but it’s really diligence in keeping everything sanitized especially when they are looking for signs of life. But, honestly it’s hard to do, and we can only do the best we can when trying to keep things clean.

Answer 4

If they are as hardly as the water bears then they most likely already survived other means of arriving and living on Earth.

Answer 5

You watch the horror movie “life” it tackles this problem. And set up a room to seal up and try to bring life from some mars rocks. But of course, it escapes quarantine and wrecks havoc. Really good (big name actors) and gore

Answer 6

You can’t. The first moon missions ended in a quarantine on Earth. Today we are reasonably sure there is no life on the moon. Mars and Venus mission planning will have to deal with this potential problem. Alien life is probably ill equipped for surviving on Earth but you cannot be absolutely sure it won’t find a niche and then change ecosystems

Answer 7

They can’t. However the planetary protection treaty doesn’t require you to do this.
The reason we haven’t been the the frozen moons of Jupiter or the glaciers of Mars is due to our lack of decontamination. We visit other places where we think life doesn’t exist.

Answer 8

I may be wrong with this, but i recall watching a documentary and the way it was explained made it seem like the concern of a dangerous pathogen is pretty low because it likely wouldnt be able to “infect” life on earth. Most bacteria and viruses evolved over long periods of time and are highly specialized and anything from space would lack the ability to find a host.