Why were the astronauts of Apollo 11 put into isolation from "Science" a scientific newspaper for each volume 1969-1970 No. 1
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Until Apollo 11, handshakes, hugs, and salutes were prepared for the space pilots, who returned to Earth. Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins had a very different reception on the evening of Thursday, July 24th. She had all the signs of an unpleasant encounter with dangerous depravity. To the spaceship swaying between the waves of the Pacific Ocean, a frogman jumped from the helicopter, whose appearance resembled a warrior, subject to the danger of poisons and bacteria, he was wearing an airtight suit, and his face emerged from a sort of gas mask. Hish-Mehar opened the spaceship's hatch, threw three similar isolation suits into it, and closed it again in the blink of an eye. Inside the "Apollo" compartment, the astronauts zipped up their suits, quickly jumped out of the spacecraft into a nearby rubber tub, which contained a disinfectant. The frogman hastened to close the cabin door again, showered jets of the disinfectant around the opening, did not hesitate to spray the astronauts themselves, who were living in the unsympathetic tub, well. Without delay, the first people who returned from the moon were brought aboard the aircraft carrier Horent that was waiting for them nearby, they were put into a special isolation car that was stationed there, they did not come close to anyone. And so, in a closed and sealed trailer, all of whose air outlets are well blocked with special filters, the returnees from the white house began three weeks of physical isolation from the Earth and its inhabitants.
There is no doubt that the people of NASA and the whole world would have been happy to welcome the heroes of "Apollo" with open arms, in the full meaning of these words, but the theoretical danger - admittedly tiny - inherent in the spacecraft and its people, is in fact greater than that of the smallpox and cholera patients. For the first among the human beings who landed in another celestial sphere, may bring with them, aside from the good news of progress and hope for the future, also injuries and damages. They may carry with them unknown life-forms, and what will happen in their meeting with the life on the surface of the planet Earth - who will correct?
odd shapes
Many scientists believe that somewhere in space life exists, in one form or another. NASA personnel are called upon, these days, to deal with a much narrower question: the possibility of the existence of life on the moon. The "receptions" that will be held for other distinguished space missions, in the future. What are the chances of life on the moon 1 very slim. "One in 100 billion," says Fasa Bell, director of NASA's "Reception and Diagnostic Laboratory", where the astronauts stay in isolation after the flight. But we must not neglect the creatures living on the face of the earth, they differ greatly in their resistance to radiation (the gray area - the area where the particular creature can no longer exist). In principle, therefore, it is possible to live even in radiation intensities that a person cannot withstand at all, when he is exposed. RAD is a unit of radiation in which living matter absorbs energy of 100 erg-radiation per gram-body. Even this chance, because if it comes true - the result could be disastrous. The conditions on the moon do not allow the existence of life forms of the type we know today. On the moon there are huge temperature differences between a lit area and a shaded area; Intense radiation hits him mercilessly. But all this still does not mean that there will not be life forms that can withstand these conditions, which are so dangerous for life on Earth.
For such life-forms, the existence of an "earthly" atmosphere can, for example, be very toxic. It should be remembered that the most fundamental characteristic of living matter is its ability to multiply itself. On Earth, the DNA is responsible for this. A chemical substance can be described that will do this and will not be based on links similar to the nucleotides that make up the DNA. One can even hypothesize from living structures in which another atom will take the place of the carbon.
But, there is no need to go that far. Even life on Earth itself is multifaceted and very flexible. Creatures in our world are very different from each other in their adaptation to their living areas, which are so different from each other in the composition of the gases in the air, in the temperature, in the acidity of their environment, in the food that is found in front of them. What are the differences between the virus, which requires the inside of a living cell to reproduce; The parasite lives in the bloodstream; The bacteria - living in the depths of the earth; The bird flying in the air? !
This diversity on one planet demonstrates that life, as we know it, has an enormous capacity for adaptability - due to another basic feature of it: the ability to respond to signals from the environment, at different levels (from the genetic level of the species to the level of the individual's actions in his life ). From the same consideration, there is no reason to assume that a factor such as ionizing radiation will prevent the development of a factor that can multiply itself - that is, living matter, even creatures on Earth differ from each other in their resistance to radiation. Some of them have developed effective repair mechanisms for its damage. It is also possible to describe a living substance whose actual composition will not be sensitive to certain types of radiation (such as ultraviolet radiation), because the substances in it will neither absorb it nor be stimulated by it. That is to say - even if the conditions above a certain celestial object are not suitable for life as they are known to us, the existence of living matter under such conditions cannot be ruled out. The question therefore arises - what will happen if astronauts do indeed bring with them unfamiliar life forms from other planets?
Will they adapt or not?
The possibilities are many. Here are some of them: * The living creatures that will arrive on Earth will not be able to adapt to life in the conditions prevailing on it. That is, they will not have the potential to culture on our planet. Any damage will not be caused by them. * The living matter that reaches us will be able to develop. That is, the fact that it existed until it came here under very different conditions, will not prevent this material from carrying with it the cultural potential even under our conditions. There are examples of microorganisms on the face of the earth that can reproduce well even under conditions completely different from their natural environment, both due to the flexibility of the living matter of the individual and due to the multitude of mutations in the culture as a whole.
It is hard to assume that in such a case, such creatures will not cause any damage to life on Earth. At some point, the current biological balance must be changed. This does not mean that they must be housed in a person and cause him diseases. They can even live only in marine plankton, for example, to cause an imbalance in the oceans, fish to die, and starvation in fish-fed countries. * The most horrifying possibility is, of course, that life forms from other planets infect humans, perhaps like viruses or bacteria. Fighting them can be very difficult. Our war against harmful microorganisms on earth is based on medicines and natural defense mechanisms - phagocytosis (swallowing the invader by engulfing cells in the body) and the creation of antibodies. It is very possible that unfamiliar life forms would not be sensitive to these natural defense mechanisms. It seems even less reasonable to hope that the bitter medicines will have an effect on them.
The existing antibiotic drugs are based on disturbances to complex mechanisms in living cells: these are not universal drugs, against all harmful microorganisms there are well known strains resistant to many drugs. There is, therefore, no reason to assume that there will be activity against different life forms, whose mechanisms are different. On the other hand, remember that a life-form that will be based on various basic components (and not on nucleic acids as they are familiar to us) may be very sensitive to compounds that do not have to harm the living matter of the earth. Such an imaginary form of life may die even from . . plain water
A dangerous "ride".
All the reasons raised immediately raise the question - what is the practical benefit of isolating the astronauts and the preventive measures taken upon their arrival against an unknown epidemic. These measures will only be effective if the life-forms that may catch a "ride" with them will behave more or less like the life we know. If not, it is not necessary that the antiseptic substances will indeed harm them, and that 21 days of isolation will indeed be enough to verify whether the uninvited guests are present. In addition, it is possible that the existence of such guests will be detectable, only after they meet creatures that are not found in the isolation laboratories. What will happen if it turns out that there was a disturbance in the normal life activity of the astronauts, or of the experimental animals in the isolation laboratories? NASA refuses to answer, what will you do if a deadly epidemic breaks out in the laboratory; Its people only hope that this will never happen. And indeed, in the meantime it turns out that everything is fine.
All these are currently only speculations. More serious will be the problem when the person returns from his journey to other planets. And then man will be called upon to gather all his knowledge about life - as he knows it, and as it may exist - in order to maintain his existence. The rifting of the space envelope, which closes life on Earth from all sides, therefore necessitates that it be accompanied by intensive immersion in both practical and theoretical biology.
All these are currently only speculations. More serious will be the problem when the person returns from his journey to other planets. And then man will be called upon to gather all his knowledge about life - as he knows it, and as it may exist - in order to maintain his existence. The rifting of the space envelope, which closes life on Earth from all sides, therefore necessitates that it be accompanied by intensive immersion in both practical and theoretical biology.
