How a pandemic prepares us for exploring and living on Mars
As people around the world rethink many aspects of their lives to combat the coronavirus pandemic, NASA experts say that knowledge and understanding of how to stay safe and healthy will help us prepare for landing on another planet.
After all, NASA's robotic explorers are already on Mars paving the way for future astronaut-led missions to the Red Planet and those expeditions will require a level of safety planning that would put a germophobe to shame.
Astronauts don't want to carry Earth bacteria to the surface of Mars because it could contaminate the environment, or even show up as a false positive of life on the planet. And they also have to be careful to quarantine any samples returned.
It requires a level of care and caution we haven't had to exercise in our daily lives until now.
Read more: https://www.dothaneagle.com/news/science/how-a-pandemic-prepares-us-for-exploring-and-living-on-mars/article_6af41616-f62b-51ac-86be-8021e143679d.html