Elon Musk argued on Thursday that life should extend beyond a single planet after computer programmer and veteran video game developer John Carmack criticized NASA’s planetary-protection rules and mockingly suggested deliberately contaminating Mars, as Pioneer Labs tests engineered microbes designed to support future settlement.
Pioneer Microbe Tests Martian Resource Use
Carmack was reacting to Pioneer Labs’ Sept. 22 announcement of sPL.001, an engineered bacterium designed to grow on nutrients from simulated Martian regolith, water and processed atmosphere. Pioneer says the organism produces bioplastic inside a protected bioreactor and could support radiation-shielded habitat construction using equipment that fits on one rocket. It calls sPL.001 the first of five organisms needed to "make Mars green."
Musk replied, stating, "Life must be multiplanetary." The comment echoes his long-running argument that reusable rockets are essential to making humanity multiplanetary.
Carmack said a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer had described the agency’s Planetary Protection office as creating substantial obstacles for Mars missions. He then joked that humanity should "empty a septic tank on Mars" so no one could treat the planet as pristine, calling the idea "Project Vandalize Mars."
NASA Reworks Rules For Human Mars Missions
NASA’s planetary-protection program aims to limit biological contamination of worlds such as Mars and preserve the scientific search for indigenous life. The agency says forward contamination can compromise life-detection experiments and reflects U.S. obligations under the Outer Space Treaty.
NASA is reassessing how those requirements should evolve for human exploration. In August, it created the M-FORCE tiger team to review Mars contamination risks using more than 60 years of atmospheric and surface data and develop updated risk thresholds.
Pioneer says sPL.001 was engineered with those concerns in mind. The microbe cannot grow without acetate supplied from processed Martian atmosphere and is rapidly sterilized under Martian surface conditions. The group stresses that sPL.001 "has no chance of terraforming Mars on its own."
Musk Keeps Multiplanetary Mars Push Alive
The project fits Musk’s long-running push for an off-world civilization. He recently suggested Mars terraforming could begin "maybe sooner" than the 2030s. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) says Starship cargo flights to Mars could begin no earlier than 2028.
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