Tesla in space viewed as massive 'biohazard' to other planets by researchers

Researchers at Purdue University believe that the red Tesla Roadster Elon Musk launched into space in February could be "the largest load of earthly bacteria to ever enter space."

Alina Alexeenko, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the school, said in a statement that the Tesla "could be considered a biothreat, or a backup copy of life on Earth."

The Tesla Roadster was launched with SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket back on Feb. 6 from the Kennedy Space Center. With its three boosters and 27 engines, Musk's Tesla was attached to what is now the most powerful rocket in active use in the world.

Musk, the Tesla CEO, included a mannequin spaceman he named "Starman" after the famous David Bowie song while "Life on Mars" blasted in the background of the Roadster's intergalactic road trip.

"If there is an indigenous Mars biota, it's at risk of being contaminated by terrestrial life," Jay Melosh, a professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences at Purdue, said in a statement.

"Would Earth's organisms be better adapted, take over Mars and contaminate it so we don't know what indigenous Mars was like, or would they be not as well adapted as the Martian organisms? We don't know."

The risk of spreading earthly bacteria to planets is low because the Roadster was not intended to land on another planet. A study found in Cornell University's Library reports the Roadster has a 6 percent chance of colliding with the Earth, a 2.5 percent chance of hitting Venus, a slim chance of hitting the sun and nearly a zero chance of coming into contact with Mars.

The Purdue researchers claim that while NASA's Office of Planetary Protections ensures spacecrafts landing on other planets are sterile, it doesn't regulate those intended to stay off of planets and in orbit.

"Even if they radiated the outside, the engine would be dirty," Melosh said in the news release. "Cars aren't assembled clean. And even then, there's a big difference between clean and sterile."

The aforementioned study Canadian and Czech researchers in the Cornell library, looked into how long the Tesla Roadster could survive in space after its launch. The study claims the electric car won't have a true first close encounter with Earth until 2091, with others coming an estimated every 30 years or so.

If the bright red Roadster were to reenter Earth's atmosphere, it is expected that it would burn up completely and leave nothing but small chunks falling to the ground.

"It's a very small object so I'm not sure how easy it will be to observe it over a year or so -- I think it will be very faint," Dr. Hanno Rein, one of the study's authors, told BBC. "But the next time it comes back to a relatively close distance to Earth, 30 years from now, it would be fun to see if we could find it again.

"This thing will be in space for several million years before it hits anything."

For those more curious in the Tesla's exact location, the Where is Starman?website tracks that using data from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Also, the website, VirtualTelescope.eu, has posted some of its interesting results from tracking the electric car on its journey through space.

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