August 8, 2020bcnn1wp

Lucas Mix on Our Cosmic Calling and the Creatures We Take With Us

Lucas Mix studies the intersection of biology, philosophy, and theology. A writer, speaker, professor, and Episcopalian priest, he has affiliations at Harvard, the Ronin Institute, and the Society of Ordained Scientists. He is currently project coordinator at Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science, supporting churches and Christian leaders using the best of science and theology. He blogson faith, science, and popular culture.

We live in an age of wonder when the boundaries of the earth seem to be more porous than ever before. Our reach extends beyond the atmosphere. We speak of earth as the ground we trod but also as a planet, a specific place in the heavens. What does it mean for us to fill the earth when we walk on another planet?

This morning NASA launched a new mission to Mars with a launch period. It has me thinking about our place in the world, our place among the worlds, and our neighbors in space.

The Mars 2020 mission will place a new rover on the surface of Mars by Feb. 18, 2021, if all goes according to plan. This mission takes the next step in searching for life and preparing for human space travel. The car-sized rover, named Perseverance, will resemble Curiosity, the rover that landed on Mars in 2012 and still remains active. It will have a whole new suite of instruments, however, and will land in an exciting new location: near the Jezero Crater, on the edge of Isidis Basin, which contains the remains of an ancient river delta. It will collect and package samples that can be returned to Earth by a future mission.

I believe that God calls us to explore space, to see what God has made, to share our love and wisdom, and to care for creation. But we cannot go alone. We travel with a host of other creatures—the animals, plants, and even bacteria that live with us daily and keep us alive. God calls them as well, and we cannot understand our call until we understand theirs. Questions about the journey, where and when and how we go, involve other species. We cannot go alone, technically or morally. We take others with us. And that requires understanding our interdependence.

Planetary Protection

The exploration of Mars pushes us to the very limits of our technology as we attempt to discover new life, while keeping it separate from Earth life. NASA has detailed protocols for return samples, making sure that alien organisms, no matter how improbable, could not escape to harass us or our environment. NASA has already brought back samples from the Moon (Apollo 11–17, 1969–1972), solar wind (Genesis, 2004) and comet Wild 2 (Stardust, 2006), as have Soviet missions (Luna 16, 20, and 24, 1970–1976). The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) returned samples of asteroid Itokawa (Hayabusa, 2016). Both agencies have plans for future missions.

Lisa Pratt, a specialist in extreme biology, has the odd title of planetary protection officer (PPO). She certifies sample-return missions, making sure they meet national and international standards for safety. She ensures that scientists think through the details of contamination, plan properly, and install redundant safety measures. Mars sample return will get extra scrutiny because Mars has a better chance of harboring life than the Moon, comets, or asteroids. The principle remains the same: protect Earth from alien life.

Pratt has another responsibility. She protects Mars from Earth life. What if we “found” life on another planet only to discover we had brought it with us? Or, what if we destroyed the locals before we knew they existed? It would be a horrible lost opportunity. We would lose out scientifically, unable to study a new kind of life. We would lose out relationally, never knowing our neighbor. Space scientists care deeply about Mars and about learning all we can there.

Planetary protection involves protocols for sterilizing spacecraft before they leave Earth. Each of us walks around in a cloud of microbes, countless tiny organisms living around, on, and in us. These symbiotes live by the billions on every surface we touch. Like good neighbors, they rarely bother us. Often, they help us by digesting our food, keeping us healthy, and protecting us from other organisms. But what is good for us may not be good for Mars. Space engineers construct special clean rooms, where air and surfaces have been sterilized. They use heat, chemicals, and radiation to scrub away as much biology as they can while assembling spacecraft. They seal them in shells then launch those shells through the atmosphere to burn away any life that remains.

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Source: Christianity Today