Medical School Seeks to Study Martian Rocks

The Texas medical school planning a laboratory to handle the world’s most dangerous organisms is ready to take on the universe.

The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, 45 miles south of Houston, is discussing the possibility of housing any Mars specimens returned to Earth in NASA’s proposed unmanned missions to the Red Planet next decade.

“A memorandum of understanding has been formulated to formally and informally talk about the problem of biohazard containment,” said Michael McGinnis, associate director for the medical branch’s Center for Tropical Diseases.

NASA spokeswoman Ann Hutchison confirmed the discussions, calling them “extremely preliminary.”

The center is preparing to build a high-security biological containment facility that will adhere to the government’s strictest standards. Researchers there will study some of the fiercest disease-causing microorganisms known to mankind.

McGinnis offered the facility’s services because of the possibility that martian rocks contain material unknown to mankind.

“The specimens probably won’t be dangerous, but you have to be careful,” McGinnis said. “This type of facility would need to be able to certify that the material coming back from Mars would not be of some type of harm to people on Earth.”

The talks anticipate the $3-billion Mars exploration project NASA envisions for the next century. If plans are carried out, the first Mars samples retrieved by unmanned vehicles could touch down on Earth in 2008.

The university’s Biosafety Level 4 lab will have been open for six years by then if plans remain on course. Officials now are deciding exactly where on campus to locate the $5-million to $7-million, privately funded facility.

The university believes the intense security and safety precautions routinely taken make it a natural first stop for any earthbound martian soil. Scientists could begin studying the martian matter once it’s deemed safe.

“[The lab] would also prevent the Mars rocks from being contaminated,” Hutchison added.

NASA would pay some sort of fee for use of the facility, McGinnis said. However, Hutchison also left open the possibility that NASA could build its own secure environment.