Fungal strains in space spark worry - we might have already contaminated --

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https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/fungal-strains-space-spark-worry-112456504.html

Fungal strains in space spark worry
Tom Chivers
Thu, May 7, 2026 at 4:24 AM PDT
1 min read
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NASA found fungal strains that survive even its most stringent 
sterilization efforts, suggesting Earth microbes may already be living 
on Mars.

When exploring worlds which could plausibly harbor life — Enceladus, 
Europa, Mars, Titan — space agencies employ protocols to prevent 
Earth-based microbes contaminating any biology elsewhere.

The existence of near-unkillable fungi makes future Mars rover missions 
more fraught and past ones potential seeds of terrestrial life on the 
red planet. Titan may likewise be compromised: When visited by the 
Cassini-Huygens orbiter in 2004, no one realized Saturn’s moon had 
liquid oceans and was thus a promising candidate for life, so the probe 
was not fully sterilized. The little spacecraft “might be seeding life,” 
a mission scientist told Flagship’s Tom in 2017.

— Tom Chivers
View comments(20)


Fred
3 hrs
We polluted Earth and now have expanded our efforts to the outer 
planets. No wonder we lost Paradise.

Homer10
27 mins
It's all about the money.

ChanTheMan
2 hrs
Humans act exactly like a cancer to this planet.


John
4 hrs
How much have we wasted to learn there is fungi on mars?

J
Joe
2 hrs
We sent life to Mars despite our best efforts.


Robert
2 hrs

"microbes MAY already be living on Mars."

Click bait. Nothing is living on Mars.

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1 reply

C


Charlie Cocaroo

3 hrs

Less than we have on claiming there are 150 genders

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👍
👎

5
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1 reply

M


Mark

2 hrs

Black fungus on earth is still a huge problem, and it keeps spreading.

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2
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ChanTheMan

2 hrs

Apparently there's no shortage ofIMbeciles, like you either (edited)

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2
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D


David

4 hrs

We might find out if there is life there by visiting the local pub in 
the place and seeing what is there. Most places with life have a pub and 
a good selection of life is usually found at the pub.

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H


Homer10

28 mins

How about Tardegrades (water bears)? They survive just about anything, 
and they are multicellular animals.
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Space

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Should Saturn's huge moon Titan be humanity's next destination, after 
the moon and Mars?
Leonard David
Thu, May 7, 2026 at 3:00 AM PDT
5 min read
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3

Key takeawaysPowered by Yahoo Scout. Yahoo is using AI to generate key 
points from this article. This means the info may not always match 
what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.
The inaugural "Humans to Titan Summit" will outline the science goals 
and concepts of human missions to Titan, including necessary precursor 
robotic missions.
See more
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After "re-booting" the moon and establishing a base there, followed by 
dispatching expeditionary crews to Mars, where should humanity go?

Next month, a first-of-its-kind gathering will blueprint an eventual 
crewed trek to tantalizing Titan, the largest of Saturn's many moons. 
That inaugural "Humans to Titan Summit" will make the case for an 
astronaut outing to that far-off moon, detailing the science goals and 
concepts of human missions to Titan as well as necessary forerunner 
robotic efforts.

And there is already a robotic Titan mission on the books — NASA's 
nuclear-powered Dragonfly octocopter mission, which is targeted to 
launch in 2028. Could it help fuel a human leap?

A NASA image of Saturn's moon, Titan It looks like a turquoise marble in 
space.
A NASA image of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Foundational talks
"It's not too soon to begin thinking about this," said Amanda Hendrix, 
director of the Planetary Science Institute, headquartered in Tucson, 
Arizona. She is also president of the advocacy group Explore Titan and 
co-author of "Beyond Earth: Our Path to a New Home in the Planets" 
(Pantheon Books, 2016).

"The idea of the summit is to bring together people from different 
communities — engineers, scientists, industry, academia, robotic and 
human spaceflight experts," Hendrix told Space.com. "We're having 
foundational talks about what precursor missions do we need in order to 
get us on the road to Titan, eventually with humans."

Hendrix noted that, after Apollo's last human foray to the moon in 1972, 
there was a gap of decades, a lull in launching astronauts beyond Earth 
orbit — a pause just filled by NASA's recent Artemis 2 mission, which 
sent four astronauts around the moon and back to Earth.

"Now we are, hopefully, back on track [with] humans going to the moon, 
with NASA talking about Mars as the next human destination," said 
Hendrix. "I think having a concept in our mind after Mars can guide our 
thinking, give us a path and keep us motivated for the future."

Visits, past and future
The Saturn moon has had visitors already. On Jan. 14, 2005, the European 
Space Agency's robotic Huygens probe — part of the NASA-ESA 
Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn — touched down on Titan.

Making a 2.5-hour descent through Titan's atmosphere, the Huygens probe 
provided a stream of data for 72 minutes once on the moon's surface. It 
set the still-standing record as the most distant landing from Earth.

"Huygens showed us many things," Hendrix said. She cited the dynamics of 
Titan's atmosphere, the look of its surface — which features water-ice 
"rocks," dry river beds, lakes and dunes — as well as the overall 
haziness at the landing locale.

"It does look otherworldly," Hendrix said.

Next up for Titan is Dragonfly, now scheduled to launch no earlier than 
2028 for a six-year voyage to Titan. Once landed, the craft will spend 
three years flying from spot to spot to investigate a range of sites, 
perhaps revealing its potential to host life.

view of brownish mountains on an alien world, taken from the sky by a 
descent probe
A set of images taken by Europe’s Huygens probe during its landing on 
Titan in January 2005, showing the view from an altitude of 1.2 miles (2 
kilometers). It is in Mercator projection, so the N-S/E-W directions 
cross at right angles but surface areas appear distorted. | Credit: 
ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
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A dynamic world
"Dragonfly is an awesome, super-important mission to a fascinating and 
active world," said Hendrix. "Titan is not a static place. It is a 
dynamic world," she said, "probably a place that's very close to an 
early-Earth kind of environment."

Dragonfly will give us a leg up in the effort to send humans to Titan, 
Hendrix said, "but there's still a lot to do and learn."

"Ultimately, we're trying to get humans on the surface and living there. 
I think that's doable in the long-term, for sure," she said. A precursor 
mission might involve robotic orbiting of Titan — perhaps even a human 
crew circuiting the Saturn moon. Radar and infrared scanning of its 
surface could be done, she said, along with gauging what impact Titan's 
changing seasons have on the moon's atmosphere.

"A lot can be done, and should be done, robotically. But with humans on 
the surface, there's work only humans can do," Hendrix said.

Surmountable issues
So, how best to strut the right stuff on Titan?

First, there's more atmospheric pressure than here on Earth. "You don't 
need a pressure suit like you do on the moon or Mars. What you do need 
to do is keep warm. It's very cold there. There's also a little more 
gravity than the Earth's moon," said Hendrix.

Because of Titan's atmosphere, "you can strap wings to your arms and 
move through the atmosphere under your own power, or strap on a jet pack 
and power yourself around. You've got that atmosphere and low gravity. 
There are many options for transport on Titan, which Dragonfly is taking 
advantage of," Hendrix said.

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Also, you'd have to make your own oxygen, Hendrix said, which is not 
available in Titan's thick, nitrogen atmosphere laced with methane. A 
Titan-based habitat would need a power source. And, given the 
precipitation of molecules and gunk that rains down and settles on the 
surface, there's a need to protect equipment, she said.

"This is all surmountable," said Hendrix, saying that Dragonfly and 
other precursor missions could yield information useful for human visits 
to Titan.

The Humans to Titan Summit 2026 is being held June 11-12 in Boulder, 
Colorado. The goal is "to explore the concept of Titan as the next human 
exploration destination after Mars, how it could be done and what we 
would need to do now," according to the event's website.

"We want the workshop to invigorate the community to think about what we 
need to do and what the possibilities are … to plant the seed that this 
is a real possibility," Hendrix concluded.

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