🚀 go-pugleaf

-From: jmd@bear.com (Josh Diamond)
-Subject: Re: Justification for the Space Program
-Date: 30 Dec 92 16:01:58 GMT
-Organization: Bear, Stearns & Co. - FAST

-Did it ever occur to anyone out there to consider the environmental
-impact of large scale disruption of the sea floor?  I could result in 
-severe problems with algal blooms and plankton die-offs, with effects
-all the way up the food chain...

You're right that any extensive mining of the sea floor will have to take
environmental concerns into account.

Another problem - there are many organisms in the sea floor material (dormant
or in spore form) that are otherwise extinct. Bringing the bottom ooze to the
surface could possibly revive the populations of some of these organisms. 
And it's not necessarily guaranteed that the predators that formerly kept
these populations under control are still around.

I'm not attempting to evaluate the level of risk, but it's something that
should be considered.

It would probably be a good idea to be careful with the first couple of
subsurface Mars samples returned to Earth, on similar grounds.

By the way, before I forget - I recently saw an old (1960s) clip on NASA
Select, discussing the sterilization of unmanned probes for exploration of
planetary surfaces (so as to avoid contaminating possible native life before
studies could be conducted). The plan at that time was to sterilize the
probes by exposing them to ethylene oxide gas. Items such as sensors that
might be sensitive to ethylene oxide could be sterilized by other means,
and covered during exposure to the gas.

John Roberts
roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov