Chapter 803: “Life” From Mars
Earth, North America.
NASA headquarters.
Director Carson sat in front of his desk, flipping through doc.u.ments.
Suddenly, his office door opened. A man in a suit quickly walked in.
Director Carson looked at his a.s.sistant and took off his gla.s.ses. He then asked in a tired voice, “What is the situation like? How are the three astronauts doing?”
The a.s.sistant replied, “They’re on the Moon Palace s.p.a.ce station.”
Carson twisted the pen in his hand and gently tapped the pen against his desk.
“What’s their timetable like? When do the Chinese plan on giving us our people back?”
They spent at least US$1 billion for this Mars Rescue mission.
Even though China publicly said they had to fork up US$713 million themselves, who knew how much of that was true.
After all, Star Sky Technology was the only company that could travel to Mars in this time period. They could manipulate the numbers however they liked.
China estimated that at most China spent three to four hundred million dollars on this mission, which was way less than the claimed 1.7 billion.
The a.s.sistant looked at Director Carson and paused for a second. He then replied with an awkward expression, “Not sure…”
“Not sure?” Director Carson paused for a second and frowned. “What do you mean… Are they planning on holding them hostage?”
“Not quite, it’s just that… There seems to be a problem with our astronauts.”
“What problem?”
Director Carson looked at his a.s.sistant with a bitter face.
“They found Martian bacteria in the metabolites of the three colonists…”
…
After Moon Palace and Starlight successfully docked, the news that the three New Virginia colonists returned to the Earth-Moon orbit spread across the world.
However, before people could celebrate their return, the news that they found Martian bacteria on the three colonists spread like wildfire.
The international community was in an uproar.
Some people were curious about the tiny living beings on Mars, while the others said that they didn’t care what the astronauts brought back from Mars.
However, the other people, the majority of people, were panicking…
Columbia TV.
A while back, when the Ares program was still trending, talk show host Jimmy enthusiastically invited the three colonists to his show. However, his stance had completely changed. Not only did he become a firm disbeliever of the Ares program, but he also invited an ecologist to criticize NASA on his show.
The old professor stared into the camera lens and spoke with an angry voice.
“I told you all, the Ares program is an inhumane and stupid experiment! NASA knew that not only is the Martian climate dangerous, but it could also contain dangerous microbes and viruses! Even then, they still decided to send these poor colonists to Mars, making them think they were safe…
“But great, now they’re coming back to Earth, thanks to the Chinese. What are we going to do with the Martian bacteria? What if the bacteria is harmful to our fragile ecosystem?
“NASA must be held accountable for this!”
Columbia TV wasn’t the only one that changed its stance.
Almost all of the politically correct media outlets expressed their disagreement with the Ares program and NASA.
Just like Carson had expected, NASA and the Ares program were criticized due to the news regarding the colonists carrying Martian bacteria.
He felt like he was mistreated.
After all, there was no plan to bring these colonists back to Earth. If it weren’t for the global sandstorm, they wouldn’t be receiving all this hatred.
But it was too late for that now.
The moment the Martian bacteria were detected in the three colonists was the moment his political career ended…
Director Carson wasn’t the only person who was affected.
All those on Wall Street, New York as well as the aeros.p.a.ce companies listed on the stock exchanges were having a bad day.
Even s.p.a.ce-X and Blue Origin, which were at the top of the aeros.p.a.ce industry, were taking hits.
However, the academic community had a different reaction.
A thesis published by Leslie and Dr. Zhao Shuxuan caused a huge worldwide sensation.
The existence of life on Mars had always been a controversial topic.
Even though humans had sent countless s.p.a.ce probes to Mars, as well as a life support system, so far no one had brought back a single gram of Martian soil.
The only sample that was available to astrobiologists were three Martian meteorites that hit Earth. They were numbered ALH840001, Yamato593, and Nakhla.
Even though there were signs of microorganisms on these meteorites, there was no direct evidence of these microorganisms.
Even though the bacteria on Starlight contained a huge amount of risk, it had immense research value.
The biology community believed that this was a gigantic discovery. Hopefully, by researching these bacteria, it would reveal more secrets of the Martian ecosystem.
The astronomy community said that the bacteria brought back from Mars by the three colonists could provide important research data for the study of Mars’ historical and geomorphological changes, as well as the evolution of the Martian atmospheric environment.
Of course, scholars also expressed some concerns.
Martian bacteria that could survive in the harsh Mars climate meant that they were likely to survive on Earth, which could cause unpredictable effects on Earth’s ecosystem.
European colonists once brought a series of infectious diseases to North America. This almost exterminated the American indigenous people. The number of Native Americans who were killed by those infectious diseases was far larger than those who died from guns.
These three colonists went to Mars and came back with Martian bacteria. Even though they seemed to be in good physical health, no one knew what could happen in the future.
In the midst of the world panic, the Chinese Lunar Orbit Committee issued a public statement.
“For the benefit of human civilization as a whole, we will not bring back the three colonists until we have either determined the possible effects of the bacteria on the Earth’s ecosystem or made sure that the bacteria are completely removed from the bodies of the three colonists.”
The Chinese Lunar Orbit Committee also announced that a lunar research facility would be built on the surface of the Moon to temporarily house the three colonists and to study their health conditions.
The research facility would be opened to the international community. China welcomed other countries to partic.i.p.ate in the research.
However, due to various factors such as cost and limited s.p.a.ce, other countries would have to pay to partic.i.p.ate in the research…