Australia's astronomers are expecting an invasion from Mars. In a poll, fewer than half of respondents said they trust NASA to protect Earth from organisms brought here in Martian soil.
Sarah Joyce and colleagues at the University of Western Australia in Perth polled 74 people belonging to four Australian astronomical societies about a NASA mission that aims to return soil from Mars after 2020.
Only 36 of the astronomers had "complete confidence" that NASA would protect Earth from contamination - while 1 in 10 had no confidence at all. And more than a fifth do not believe that NASA will "honestly inform the public of the risks" of the mission (Advances in Space Research, DOI: 10.1016/j.asr.2007.02.009).
"NASA must realise the importance of international risk communication," says Joyce.
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