Officials decided instead to open the door, and retrieve the men by raft and helicopter (see picture at the top of this article). But Nasa had second thoughts after concerns were raised about the astronauts' wellbeing while waiting inside the hot, stuffy space, buffeted by waves. When the astronauts splashed down, the original protocol stated that they should stay inside the spacecraft. However, there was a major gap in the quarantine procedure, according to the law scholar Jonathan Wiener of Duke University, who writes about the episode in a paper about misperceptions of catastrophic risk. It was also agreed that the lunar explorers would then spend three weeks in isolation before they could hug their families or shake the hand of the president.
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After congressional hearings, Nasa agreed to install a costly quarantine facility on the ship that would pick up the men from their splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Concerned officials from the US Public Health Service argued for stricter measures than initially planned, twisting the space agency's arm by pointing out that they had the power to refuse border entry to contaminated astronauts. Nasa put several quarantine measures in place – in some cases, a little reluctantly. "Maybe it's sure to 99% that Apollo 11 will not bring back lunar organisms," said one influential scientist at the time, "but even that 1% of uncertainty is too large to be complacent about." What if the astronauts brought back something dangerous? At the time, the probability was not considered high – few thought that the Moon was likely to harbour life – but still, the scenario had to be explored, because the consequences were so severe. This was the idea that astronauts, rockets or probes returning to Earth might bring back life that could prove catastrophic, either by outcompeting Earth organisms or something far worse, like consuming all our oxygen.īack contamination was a fear that Nasa needed to take seriously during the planning of the Apollo missions to the Moon.
These concerns matter just as much today as they did back in the Space Race era.Ī second concern was "back" contamination. And if there were extra-terrestrial organisms out there, we might end up inadvertently killing them with Earth-based bacteria or viruses, like the fate of the aliens at the end of War of the Worlds. If microbes snuck onboard, it would confuse any attempts to detect alien life. Spacecraft needed to be sterilised and carefully packaged before launch.
When humanity first made plans to send probes and people into space in the mid-20th Century, the issue of contamination came up.įirstly, there was the fear of "forward" contamination – the possibility that Earth-based life might accidentally hitch a ride into the cosmos.
The downside? There was a small possibility of unleashing deadly alien microbes on Earth.Ī couple of decades beforehand, a group of scientists and military officials stood at a similar turning point. Nasa officials decided to make things more pleasant for their three national heroes. Following the Apollo 11 Moon landings, the three astronauts were waiting to be picked up inside their capsule floating in the Pacific Ocean – and they were hot and uncomfortable. In the late 1960s, Nasa faced a decision that could have shaped the fate of our species.
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