The Hawking Paradox

Recent announcements from NASA and other scientific publications are pushing the limits of our understanding of our solar system and our universe. These events are unfolding as if on cue as events that are known as Black Swans change the way we view ourselves and the condition for our well-being.

Nearly ten months into the new year, we see that the Fall and even into the Winter our minds will be focused on the frontier provided by space and the overall discord we are seeing play out in places like Syria and Europe. Even though that many times this year, we have come to precipice of war – it becomes apparent that an announcement of life on Mars and elsewhere will have to be the very thing that unites us.

If experiments at the large hadron collider at CERN are successful we may also be able to open a wormhole that would be convenient to facilitate a straight conduit to planets like Jupiter, Saturn and Mars.

It appears that some areas of science already knew that the announcement about probable life would have to be made and that the study of the first moments, the first second that our Universe was born was crucial to understanding how life evolved not only on this planet but all over the galaxy.

Science tells us that we have now peered into the birth of creation and depending on who you listen to you will also hear that the universe is teaming with life. It is also interesting to note that as crazy as it may sound something as simple as TV static or the “snow effect” on analog TV signals provide the sound and 1 percent of the light that existed during the “big bang.”

We have discussed that buried in this electromagnetic noise may be the key to encrypted messages that have been broadcast by alien intelligence for a long time.

This may explain why analog signals were replaced by digital signals.

On June 12, 2009, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandated that all U.S. based television signals must be transmitted digitally. Who would have thought that the random pattern superimposed on the TV screen, as a random flicker of “dots” or “snow”, was the result of electronic noise and radiated electromagnetic noise from outer space echoing from the past into our present?

Was the idea of having all broadcasts being digital a clandestine way of blocking any signal that may have slipped through the static?

Science could have very well been aware of transmissions that could slip through the cracks after for some years Places like SETI have been using their radio telescopes for years just begging that we get a message just like the elephant Horton in Dr. Suess’ book, “Horton Hears a Who.”

Even renowned physicist, Stephen Hawking has weighed in on the “alien” question and says he most definitely believes that aliens exist. He has stated that “If aliens visit us, the outcome could be much like when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.”

While Hawking has given warning about our first contact, he also has engaged in a bit of doublethink by putting up the money necessary to finance the ongoing quest to communicate or otherwise intercept messages from extraterrestrials.

Last July, Hawking and Russian tycoon Yuri Milner held a news conference in London to announce their new project which included injecting $100 million and a whole lot of brain power into the search for intelligent extraterrestrial life, an endeavor they called “Breakthrough Listen.”

This seems to have presented a dubious paradox or a contradictory stance on whether we should or should not bait the aliens into coming into our contemporary world. With that NASA announcement about Mars we may find that alien life can be found in our solar neighborhood.

For the majority of scientists the theory of intelligent life existing out in space has been called a “pipe dream”, but microbial life and space bacteria have always been something that science have said will be the first discovery.

Believe it or not NASA has always kept in its files something called, The NASA Policy Directive 8020.7G. The Office of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate has issued a Policy on Planetary Protection Requirements for Human Extraterrestrial Missions.

The policy states:

“The conduct of scientific investigations of possible extraterrestrial life forms, precursors, and remnants must not be jeopardized.

In addition, the Earth must be protected from the potential hazard posed by extra-terrestrial matter carried by a spacecraft returning from another planet or other extra-terrestrial sources. Therefore, for certain space-mission/target-planet combinations, controls on organic and biological contamination carried by spacecraft shall be imposed in accordance with directives implementing this policy.”

The provisions of this directive cover all space flight missions, robotic and human, which may intentionally or unintentionally carry Earth organisms and organic constituents to the planets or other solar system bodies, and any mission employing spacecraft which are intended to return to Earth and/or its biosphere from extraterrestrial targets of exploration.

This policy also functions as a clear indication that NASA is already aware of biological contaminants leaving earth and contaminating other planets and the reverse where exobiological life could be brought back and destroy the biosphere.

When space exploration was first discussed in the 1950’s, our germs hitchhiking on our spacecraft and contaminating other worlds warranted concern from scientists.

However, there was also concern that wherever we end up in the solar system during our space missions, there is the possibility that astronauts, rovers and robot explorers could damage the absolute integrity of our biosphere.

The announcement on Monday from NASA about following the water to life forms should be met with extreme caution. That is if one of our various probes, astronauts of robots decides to bring back a glass of the briny water that has been discovered in the Martian regolith.

On Earth, we have learned that water has many things in it. Water is the elixir of life, but it also can be the home of various contaminants, heavy metals and deadly bacteria.

There are even horror stories of finding rare and deadly brain eating Amoeba that can contribute to the horrific disease known as Primary Amebic Meningoencephalitis.

Now imagine the scenario form bringing back the salty water from Mars and having dangerous bacteria – that would not only prove the existence of life, but also seal the inevitability of an extinction level event.

We have reported that there are life forms that have been called extremophiles. These are organisms that have been known to survive in extreme environments. One of those extreme environments is the salty, dehydrated conditions that we now know exist on Mars. Scientists have seen first-hand these organisms.

In the ultra-dry Atacama Desert in Chile, they have found microbes living in salt crystals. They survive by absorbing moisture from the atmosphere. This type of life just might be similar to the smoking gun they are looking for in their quest to find life on the Red planet.

I am sure that when Stephen Hawking mentions the possible colonization of aliens through hostile means – he may or may not have taken into consideration that our first exposure to hostile alien life, could be bacteria and other small life forms that could contaminate the biosphere and quite possibly wipe out the entire planet.

In fact, in his statements he has said the aliens may value us in the same manner that we value bacteria.

The International Committee against Mars Sample Return, or ICAMSR, is an advocacy group of scientists who campaign against Mars sample return. The committee was founded in the year 2000.

They have been quoted in news stories and books discussing these types of mission. The ICAMSR charter states their main goal is that samples should be certified safe in space first, before they are returned to Earth.

This would mean that a lab would have to be set up on the International Space Station or on the planet Mars itself.

Or as some scientists believe, most of the life found on Mars if it is microbial may die when it arrives on Earth. To that life, Earth would be an alien and hostile environment. They could possibly explode being exposed to the humidity of Earth.

If you were a scientist, would you take the chance at having the entire earth infected with a microbial life form? Would you require that a lab be constructed in space to analyze this life –or would you take the chance of bringing the microbes back and having them die in transit?

The other question is if the microbes and bacterial life were to die, how would anyone believe that science has provided the proof necessary to convince the world that alien life forms were discovered at all?

The truth is space is not always a place that suffocates life as we know it. Last year it was reported that plankton had been found living on the exterior of the International Space Station.

The plankton were not carried there at launch but are thought to have been blown there by air currents on Earth. Incredibly, the tiny organisms were found to be able to survive in the vacuum of space despite the freezing temperatures, lack of oxygen and cosmic radiation.

The discovery was made during a routine spacewalk by Russian cosmonauts Olek Artemyev and Alexander Skvortsov, who were launching nano-satellites into space.
They used wipes to polish the surface of windows – also known as illuminators – on the Russian segment of the ISS and later found the presence of plankton and other microorganisms using ‘high-precision’ equipment.

The idea of diseases from an extra-terrestrial source has always been discussed but never really proven. However, the astronauts in the 1960’s and 1970’s were always forced into isolation in case they brought with them interstellar bugs from space.

The obligation of space agencies to prevent contamination of Earth and other planets is stated in the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty, which started life as a means of preventing the Moon and planets being used for hostile purposes.

In the book, “The Andromeda Strain” by Michael Crichton, a sample retrieval satellite is sent into space to collect micro–organisms for study. A malfunction occurs and the retrieval capsule crash lands in a desolate area of Arizona.

Concerned citizens from a nearby town find the capsule and try to figure out where it came from. Two military officers are sent to retrieve the satellite. When the officers arrive in the town, it appears to be abandoned.

The officers are later heard on the radio screaming and gasping for breath. The capsule’s protective shielding has been breached and an alien bacteria is released into the air.

The new alien bacteria clots their blood within three seconds of entering their lungs.

The book was written at a time when there were serious concerns about astronauts being contaminated with space viruses when they traveled to and from the moon.
It was eventually decided that there was no reason to quarantine the astronauts.

When Apollo 12 retrieved parts of the Surveyor 3, which landed on the moon in April of 1967, bacteria was found in the probe. It had survived the launch and managed to stay alive on the airless surface of the moon.

The bacteria were Streptococcus mitis. It is a bacterium that is normally found in the nose and throat. We really have not talked about this case and that the possibility exists that an alien or mutated virus could have been unleashed accidentally on the planet.

When someone suggests that perhaps a microbial life form could survive extreme conditions or mutate, it is usually laughed at because it seems many people believe conditions for life anywhere, including space, are narrow and rigid.

The Financial Times reported earlier this year that astrobiologists raised concerns about ultra-sensitive space instruments and their associated electronics were now made of materials too delicate to withstand heat sterilization.

While that is usually fine for orbiters, which do not land, it poses a challenge to missions such as NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, due to touch down on the Red Planet after 2020.

There is an urgent need to develop the technology required to make sure future landings are not the bringers of bacterial doom. As humanity embarks on a search for Martian life in the brine, we must ensure that our methods are ethically water-tight.

Perhaps Stephen Hawking will now be finding himself thinking twice about his paradoxical statements…or thinking twice at least one more time.

Text – Check out Ground Zero Radio with Clyde Lewis Live Nightly @ http://www.groundzeromedia.org