Since going online January 2000 ICAMSR has served as the people's astroenvironmental awareness organization
respecting Article IX of the United Nations Outer Space Treaty.
It is likely that life on Mars was discovered by the Viking Labeled Release experiment
in 1976 by Gilbert V. Levin and Patricia A. Straat two former NASA astrobiologists. Recent findings of
methane plumes on Mars by NASA scientists now seem to confirm this discovery.
"There is no conceivable risk of BSE being transmitted from cows to people"
The Rt. Hon. Stephen Dorrell, Minister of State for Health Her Majesty's Government 3rd December 1995
The above quote exemplifies the arrogance of how modern science underestimates the
power of the tiny microbe and also typifies the views of many in the planetary science community
regarding Mars Sample Return.
From the years 1347 - 1350, one quarter of the European population died
as a result of a flea from China carrying an unfamiliar microbe.
Smallpox microbes brought to the America's by the Spaniards killed tens
of thousands of native inhabitants not naturally immune to this "new"
disease.
When the European explorers reached the Polynesian and Hawiian Islands,
50% of the native inhabitants died as a result of imported microbes...
In the near future, NASA plans to bring back to the
surface of the Earth, a canister from Mars filled with Martian soil, which could contain
possible pathogenic viruses and/or bacteria. In light of the loss of both
the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander spacecraft (due to human error), the
International Committee Against Mars Sample Return (ICAMSR) urges the scientific and environmental
communities to study the material contained in this website to make an informed decision on whether
they feel the risks outway the benefits. We only have one Earth. ICAMSR seeks a complete life sciences
evaluation of the surface of Mars with robotic space probes designed to look for evidence of
life before samples are returned to Earth.
