专家警告说，火星岩石样本可能会将外星病毒带到地球

Scientists are preparing for a potential close encounter of the viral kind.

科学家们正在为这种病毒可能的近距离接触做准备。

Researchers say that when humans return from a planned visit to Mars in the 2030s, they’ll have to quarantine because rock samples from the Red Planet could be as dangerous as Ebola — even if the likelihood they are is low.

研究人员表示，当人类计划在21世纪30年代访问火星回来时，他们将不得不隔离，因为来自这颗红色星球的岩石样本可能和埃博拉病毒一样危险——即使可能性很低。

Rockets returning from Mars will have to undergo a chemical cleaning involving intense heat as well.

从火星返回的火箭还必须进行包括高温在内的化学清洗。

Stanford professor of aeronautics and astronautics Scott Hubbard told the Stanford News that “planetary protection” for Earth must be paramount when welcoming back anyone or anything from Mars.

斯坦福大学航空航天学教授斯科特·哈伯德在接受《斯坦福新闻》采访时表示，在欢迎任何人或任何东西从火星回来时，对地球的“行星保护”必须是最重要的。

“In my opinion, and that of the science community, the chance that rocks from Mars that are millions of years old will contain an active life form that could infect Earth is extremely low,” Hubbard said. “But the [Mars] samples returned by [NASA] will be quarantined and treated as though they are the Ebola virus until proven safe.”

哈伯德说：“在我和科学界看来，数百万年前火星上的岩石含有一种能感染地球的活跃生命形式的可能性极低。”。“但是(美国国家航空航天局)返回的(火星)样本将被隔离，在证明它们是安全的之前，要像埃博拉病毒对待。”

Samples returning from this summer’s planned, un-manned Mars 2020 mission involving NASA’s Perseverance Rover will be “baked at a high temperature” before scientists can study them.

今年夏天，美国国家航空航天局(NASA)的“恒心号”(Perseverance)火星探测车将执行火星2020计划，在无人驾驶的情况下执行火星任务。返回的样本将“在高温下烘烤”，然后科学家才能对其进行研究。

NASA has said they want to send humans to Mars as early as 2035.

美国宇航局表示，他们希望最早在2035年将人类送上火星。