Tesla Roadster that Elon Musk sent into space could contaminate Mars with bacteria from Earth

'Starman' riding a Tesla Roadster was launched into orbit on February 6
Microbes by the car on Earth could survive on the vehicle for millions of years
If the car collides with Mars the bacteria could wipe out any life on the red planet

Published: 17:45 GMT, 28 February 2018 | Updated: 17:59 GMT, 28 February 2018

The Tesla Roadster that billionaire Elon Musk dramatically launched into space earlier this month could contaminate Mars with bacteria.

Microbes collected by the electric sports car and its plastic mannequin driver on Earth could survive on the vehicle for millions of years.

If the car collides with Mars, bacteria from Earth could wipe out any alien microorganisms that may live on the red planet, researchers claim.

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The Tesla Roadster that billionaire Elon Musk dramatically launched into space earlier this month could contaminate Mars with bacteria. Microbes collected by the electric sports car and on Earth could survive on the vehicle for millions of years

The Tesla Roadster that Elon Musk launched into space could contaminate Mars with bacteria. Microbes collected by the electric sports car and its plastic mannequin driver on Earth could survive on the vehicle for millions of years. Pictured is the car after it was launched this month

Professor Jay Melosh, an atmospheric and planetary scientist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, said: 'If there is an indigenous Mars biota, it's at risk of being contaminated by terrestrial life.'

'Would Earth's organisms be better adapted, take over Mars and contaminate it so we don't know what indigenous Mars was like, or would they be not as well adapted as the Martian organisms? We don't know.'

Nasa's Office of Planetary Protection (OPP) usually ensures spacecraft planning to land on other planets are sterile.

Much like an invasive species, organisms from Earth could thrive on another planet and wipe out native organisms.

But the OPP doesn't regulate spacecraft that are built to stay in orbit.

Since the Tesla was never intended to land, it wasn't cleaned before takeoff by SpaceX, the private rocket firm that launched it into space.

Speaking to Purdue University's news site, Professor Melosh said: 'Even if they radiated the outside, the engine would be dirty.

If the car collides with Mars, bacteria from Earth could wipe out any alien microorganisms that may live on the red planet, researchers claim (stock image)

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF BACTERIA FROM EARTH MADE ITS WAY TO MARS?

Bacteria are hardy organisms that can survive in the most adverse conditions.

They are found all over the globe, from the frozen tundra of the Antarctic to the Mariana Trench - the deepest point in the ocean.

These specific species' are called 'extremophiles' - things that can survive in what humans consider to be extreme conditions.

For example, humans see the presence of oxygen as a necessity for survival and maintaining life, but some bacteria can live without any oxygen at all.

Bacteria in space would have little of anything in the abyss to survive on as the vacuum prohibits the flourishing of life.

However, if bacteria were to survive and arrive on Mars, it would likely have devastating consequences.

The atmosphere of Mars is so thin and weak it can not maintain complex life, but experts are divided on whether simple microorganisms exist on the red planet.

If it can, it is likely to be very fragile.

This developing ecosystem would be destroyed by bacteria from Earth that has evolved to deal with extreme conditions, making the planet totally barren.

If bacteria from Earth landed on Mars it could prohibit the growth of intellectual extraterrestrial life forever.

Invasive bacteria have wrecked havoc on Earth in the past.

The European settlers of South America brought with them smallpox, salmonella and other diseases that wiped out entire communities of native South Americans.

'Cars aren't assembled clean. And even then, there's a big difference between clean and sterile.'

The car is unlikely to ever hit Mars, Professor Melosh said.

It is currently on an orbital path that crosses Earth's and Mars's, and is more likely to end up hitting our own planet, but it could be millions of years before that happens.

Extreme temperatures, low pressure and cosmic radiation make outer space an inhospitable environment for living organisms.

But some microorganisms can survive in extreme environments, going dormant in the vacuum of space before waking up again when conditions improve.

The car is unlikely to ever hit Mars, Professor Melosh said. It is currently on an orbital path that crosses Earth's and Mars's, and is more likely to end up hitting our own planet, but it could be millions of years before that happens

Professor Alina Alexeenko works in a Purdue lab that specialises in freeze-drying bacteria to preserve them long-term – a process similar to what live organisms experience in space.

She said: 'The load of bacteria on the Tesla could be considered a biothreat, or a backup copy of life on Earth.'

Since Elon Musk launched his Tesla Roadster atop one of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rockets, stargazers have attempted to track the dummy's cosmic journey.

The spectacle, which launched February 6, saw a mannequin called Starman strapped behind the wheel of the car as it left the planet on the back of the world's most powerful rocket.

Millions of people worldwide have been following the fate of the craft, including one professional photographer who trained his camera on the night sky to capture footage of it from 500,000 miles away.

Rogelio Bernal Andreo is a Spanish-American astrophotographer best known for his images of deep sky objects.

He used Nasa's online ephemeris calculator to work out where Starman was in the night sky and captured footage of the vehicle, which appears in the photo as a tiny speck among a vast sea of stars.

Elon Musk made history with the launch of his of Falcon Heavy rocket but experts say its payload could crash back to Earth in the next million years. This image, captured on February 8, shows the red Telsa Roadster carrying Starman captured via telescope

Earlier reports indicated that Starman (green line) had shot beyond the orbit of Mars because one of the boosters of the Falcon Heavy - the jumbo rocket on which the Tesla was launched - burned for too long and would head straight to the Asteroid Belt

Musk's Roadster can now be found through the online Horizons tool from Nasa's Jet Propulsion Lab.

Among the organisations tracking the object is The Virtual Telescope Project, an advanced robotic facility in Italy which offers true real-time observations of the Universe with remotely controlled telescopes.

WHAT IS THE THE SECRET PAYLOAD ABOARD SPACEX'S ORBITING ROADSTER?

New insight emerged on February 13, 2018, of the contents of the payload carried into space by Elon Musk's Falcon Heavy rocket.

The Tesla Roadster is carrying a small disc developed by researchers at the University of Southampton.

The disc, which looks like a shrunken DVD, is storing information on human knowledge and was designed by a group aiming to preserve history called the Arch Mission Foundation.

A disc made by the Arch Mission Foundation is on board Elon Musk's orbiting Tesla Roadster. The disc can supposedly last up to 14 billion years, and it features a copy of Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy

This includes Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy, a series of science fiction books.

The Arch Mission Foundation said that the disc is among the 'longest-lasting storage objects ever created by humans' and that it will be 'stable' for 14 billion years.

The technology, made of quartz silica glass, was created by Dr Peter Kazansky and was written by a laser.

The organization's goal is to store human knowledge in different corners of the solar system.

This diagram from the Arch Mission Foundation reveals how the disc works. It was developed by researchers at the University of Southampton

It claims that its libraries, such as the one sent into space via Musk's Tesla, are 'durable under the harsh environments of space and the surfaces of other planets'.

The Arch Mission Foundation hopes to eventually expand and send libraries to the moon and Mars, and its statement requests donations to make this possible.

The Foundation says that it hopes to send data sets into space to help humans develop a spacefaring civilization.

To mark the occasion, SpaceX live streamed the launch, which saw a red Tesla roadster carrying a mannequin called Spaceman strapped to the giant rocket

In a photo shared before the launch, a camera positioned at the side of the Roadster can be seen pointed directly at Starman

The billionaire shared a final photo on Wednesday, February 7, of the Roadster that he launched into space just a day earlier.

Musk's photo showed the car in an elliptical orbit around the sun with an increasingly distant crescent Earth in the background.

'Last pic of Starman in Roadster enroute [sic] to Mars orbit and then the Asteroid Belt,' he wrote on Instagram.

The 250-million-mile journey will be taking the payload to a solar orbit with a high point just beyond Mars, as initially predicted by SpaceX.

Earlier reports had claimed it was heading further out into the solar system towards the asteroid belt because one of the boosters of the Falcon Heavy burned for too long.

Data shows that when the Tesla climbed out of the Earth-moon gravity well, the excess velocity provided by the upper stage's final rocket firing enables the car to leave Earth's gravitational clutches and move out into the solar system.

It will pass within about 69 million miles of Mars on June 8 and cross the red planet's orbit in July before reaching its farthest distance from the sun - about 158 million miles (254 million km) - on November 19.

With a mannequin named 'Starman' inside of the car, Musk's photo the Tesla Roadster roadster in an elliptical orbit around the sun with a increasingly distant crescent Earth in the background, the final photo that will ever be seen of the dummy's voyage into the solar system

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO ELON MUSK'S STARMAN AND HIS TESLA ROADSTER NOW THEY ARE IN SPACE?

Where is the roadster going?

Starman was meant to be on a 250-million-mile (400m km) journey to Mars' orbit, propelled by the main module, which separated from Falcon Heavy shortly after launch.

But in a slight hiccup, Elon Musk admitted SpaceX overshot Falcon Heavy's third booster burn, sending Starman further into the solar system than was originally planned.

The new orbit will sent the Roadster on a journey into the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

What will happen to it?

The main force that will tear the car apart over hundreds of millions of years in space is radiation.

This will particularly affect the plastics and carbon-fibre frame.

'[Those materials] are made up largely of carbon-carbon bonds and carbon-hydrogen bonds,' Dr William Carroll, a chemist at Indiana University told Live Science.

On Earth we are protected by a powerful magnetic field and atmosphere that shields us from the worst of radiation from the sun and cosmic rays.

Radiation in space causes those bonds to break which will eventually cause the car to fall to pieces.

'When you cut something with a knife, in the end, you're cutting some chemical bonds,' Dr Carroll said.

'All of the organics will be subjected to degradation by the various kinds of radiation that you will run into there,' he said.

How long will it last?

'Those organics, in that environment, I wouldn't give them a year,' Dr Carroll said.

The well-secured inorganic materials, such as the aluminium frame and internal metals, would last longer, meaning it could still be recognisable in at least a million years.

However, it is unlikely it will avoid all collisions with micrometeorites and other space junk in the meantime.

Before the launch Musk said there was a chance the car might hit Mars. Now on its new path it's not clear whether the car might run into some other space object.

Starman was meant to be on a 250-million-mile (400 million km) journey to Mars' orbit, propelled by the main module, which separated from Falcon Heavy shortly after launch. This image shows Starman behind the wheel of the Tesla as it spins through space above the Earth

WHY DID SPACEX LAUNCH A CAR INTO SPACE AND WAS ITS FALCON HEAVY FLIGHT SUCCESSFUL?

What was the launch trying to achieve?

The Falcon Heavy test flight was mostly a proof-of-concept, showing the world it is possible to successfully fly a rocket with thee re-usable boosters beyond orbit.

SpaceX has previously only launched what it calls 'Falcon 9' rockets, which each have a single re-usable booster.

Rockets are normally loaded with concrete or steel blocks during test flights to see how spacecraft perform with a payload, but in December SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the firm would load their rocket with his Tesla Roadster instead.

Musk said that the company planned to aim the rocket so the electric car reached Mars' orbital path around the sun about six months after launch.

The billionaire added that the car could pass close to the red planet as it crossed its orbit, though he admitted this was 'extremely unlikely'.

What does SpaceX gain from the flight?

SpaceX was built around the idea that reusable rockets could drastically reduce the cost of carrying cargo into space for paying customers, such as satellites or space station resupplies.

Showing that the huge Falcon Heavy rocket actually works is important if SpaceX plans to sell cargo space on the craft in future, with the company planning to charge customers $90 million (£65 million) per flight.

Now Falcon Heavy has launched, it could soon begin missions for SpaceX's clients, which include Nasa, Nato and the US National Reconnaissance Office.

As with previous SpaceX rocket launches, the test also generated a flurry of media attention for the company, helped along by Musk's quirky social media posts.

Has SpaceX achieved its goals?

Elon Musk repeatedly warned that Falcon Heavy would likely explode on the launchpad as a result of its sheer power, so by getting it beyond Earth's orbit SpaceX has already surpassed the billionaire's expectations.

The rocket took its unusual cargo into space before its three cores separated from the main module, leaving Musk's Tesla on a mission into deep space.

Two of the craft's three re-usable cores landed successfully back at Cape Canaveral, Florida, while the third crashed into the ocean and exploded when two of its re-entry boosters failed during its return to Earth.

Musk later said that SpaceX had slightly overcooked one of the rocket's booster burns, sending the main module out of its planned trajectory. He said the car will likely end up further into the solar system than intended, missing Mars.

In short, the rocket made it beyond Earth's orbit - SpaceX's primary goal - but missed its targets to re-land all three cores and send Musk's Tesla to Mars.

Does that matter?

SpaceX's failure to re-land all three of its boosters will be a concern for potential customers, man of whom may want to see a fully successful test flight before buying a slot on a Falcon Heavy mission.

Ultimately, the hiccup is unlikely to cut demand for commercial Falcon Heavy flights when they begin in the near future.

In 2016, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded on its launchpad, destroying a $200 million (£145 million) Israeli satellite, but the firm has since launched more than 20 Falcon 9 craft carrying cargo for paying customers.

Despite the faults, the launch has still been hailed by industry experts as a game-changer because of its potential to propel the California-based company to the very forefront of the modern day space race.

Once it irons out the errors, SpaceX will offer cargo rides aboard the most powerful operational rocket in the world, capable of carrying twice the capacity of any other spacecraft.

Where is Musk's Tesla now?

The Falcon Heavy's unusual cargo was sent into an unplanned trajectory when SpaceX accidentally over-fired the rocket's third booster stage.

The booster stages were supposed to make small adjustments to the vehicle's path before it disconnected from the final rocket component and began to coast unaided through space at around 7 miles per second (11 km/s).

Instead of intersecting with Mars' orbit around the sun, the Tesla missed by some distance, flying past the planet at an unknown distance and continuing deep into the solar system.

On Twitter, Musk said the car 'exceeded Mars orbit and kept going to the Asteroid Belt', referring to the disk of asteroids in the solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

SpaceX had said before launch that they had no plans to track the Tesla, and with the firm's cameras running out of battery 12 hours into the vehicle's journey, it's almost impossible to tell where Starman is now.

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