NASA's Rover Perserverance Mission Has The Potential To Bring Alien Viruses To Earth

Photo illustration of a NASA rocket (NASA / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Until today, the panic over the outbreak of COVID-19 has not subsided. In the midst of these conditions, a former high ranking official of the United States Space Agency (NASA) predicted the threat of a new virus, namely an alien virus.

The top official was former director of NASA's Ames Research Center Scott Hubbard. He said, the entry of an alien virus to Earth is very likely to occur along with the Rover Perserverance mission that NASA will undertake next year. In this mission, later NASA will land its astronauts in Jezero Crater on Mars.

Launching the Daily Mail , on the Rover Perserverance mission, astronauts are not only given the task of looking for fossils, but also to pave the way for humans to reach Mars. Hubbard also warned the possibility that astronauts could bring extraterrestrial life, aka aliens, to Earth.

"I have heard from some colleagues that they see the potential for humans to carry alien microbes and viruses that can contaminate the earth," he said.

To that end, Hubbard warned NASA to be careful with samples it brought from outer space and make sure everything went according to procedure. For example, by applying the correct sample sealing technique.

"In my opinion, which refers to the scientific community, rocks from Mars that are millions of years old are suspected to contain active life. They could infect the earth even though the probability is very low," said Hubbard.

"However, Mars samples brought back by NASA will be quarantined as if the rock were Ebola virus until everything is proven safe," he added.

Therefore, the aircraft carrying astronauts must be sterilized first. After that, only the astronauts are quarantined to make sure they don't carry the disease. This was done in reference to the first exploration mission to the moon on the Apollo mission.

"Once no disease is found, quarantine is eliminated. Such procedures should no doubt be followed by astronauts returning from Mars," he concluded.