(2019 Archived) Dealing with Venusian Planetary Protection Issues and Using Potential Venusian Organisms to our Advantage.

 Having written this in 2019, and originally published in 2021.. when I was 15 and 17, there would be inaccuracies that I would correct here. Having removed it, I'm publishing  again, for sake of completion so that the efforts wouldn't have gone to vain: Most of this still holds true (2025.03)

“Planetary protection is a guiding principle in the designing of an interplanetary mission, aiming to prevent biological contamination of both the target celestial body and the Earth in the case of sample-return missions” ^[42]. It is basically an ethic, which might prevent potential or possible indigenous life which evolved separately from our own evolutionary tree, from contamination during a planetary visit. Planetary protection aims at protecting such life, from being outcompeted from our contaminants (Forward Contamination) or the transfer of potential extraterrestrial life, to our biosphere and out-competing us (Back Contamination).

Still, forward contamination is the most likely to take place in most scenarios. Out of those two, Forward Contamination is still the mist likeliest to happen. But, concentrated Sulphuric acid is prevalent almost everywhere in the Venusian atmosphere. Could even the most simple of life survive in such hostile conditions? Indeed it could: In fact, we have our own examples for acidophilic micro-organisms, which include Picrophyilus, which “grows optimally in sulphuric acid at   pH 0.7 and is capable of growth (not just survival but growth) down to pH -0.06 (1.2M sulphuric acid) ^[23]. You can find Picrophyilus living naturally in acid mine drainage, sulfur emitting fumaroles (solfataras) or concentrated sulphuric acid in the wild ^[43]. 

Furthermore, “it has been speculated that any hypothetical microorganisms inhabiting the atmospheres, if present, could employ ultraviolet light (UV) emitted by the sun as an energy source, which could be an explanation for dark lines observed in UV photographs of Venus” ^[44]. Shortly, The Venusians would have to be careful regarding their activities, in order to protect potential aerial life-forms from possible forward contamination.

The essence of having aerial Venusian micro-organisms (which we shall refer to as the ‘Venaeri-microbes’ for our convenience), is quite beautiful. Again, it comes to show how we, as living beings, love to resonate the idea of life elsewhere ^[4]. Nonetheless, the real possibility of it being quite true is quite miniscule and almost negligible – Let’s talk about it anyway!

There is a possibility that Venaeri-microbes, if present, might pose a threat as a pathogen. If we were to assume that any potential aerial micro-organisms are pathogenic, it should be reiterated that they are alien; they evolved separately to us, and our immune system never dealt with them before. The Venusians would have to rely on their immunity, and give a fight, until suitable vaccines were to be developed. Moreover, they might be a pathogenic not only to humans; but Venusian crops, plants, or trees too ^[43].

Until ‘the vaccine’ is created, the Venaeri-microbes could use advantage of the Venusians’ defencelessness and directly infect them, as with the case of Legionaries’ disease, which is caused by an amoeba, that could live and reproduce in the human lung.  The Venaeri-microbes might be able to live on their skin, lungs, sinuses and even stomachs. The stomach! Its gastric juices are the ideal place for any pathogenic Venaeri-microbe. The acidophilic Venaeri-microbes might grow, develop and reproduce in their stomachs, interfere with digestion, or create or synthesize allergens as a by-product.Similarly, the Venaeri-microbes might be able to “[take] the place of some other ‘organism’ in [their] ecosystem [i.e. the Venusian cloud-cities and habitats] but behaves differently so disrupting natural cycles” ^[23]. Also, the Venaeri-microbes might “well create chemicals that resembles the ones in our own body but are not identical and get substituted for them, and so disrupt the ways our cells work, or the way cells of other organisms work ^[43].

We have a similar example for this phenomenon here on the Earth: It is the story of green-algae that produces β-N-Methylamino-1-Alanine (BMMA), which is a non- protein amino acid that substitutes for L-Serine, which is a protein amino acid in our cells. This substitution is known to lead to cells clustering together, and cause Alzheimer’s disease. An analogous incident of similar calibre is plausible with the Venaeri-microbes ^[43].

Again, it should be reiterated that the chances of this being reality, is quite very slim – but worth thinking about. But, if it were reality, there could even be a Utopian side to it; The Venaeri-microbes would have to find ways of metabolism, in the strictly hostile Venusian conditions. Surely, there should be ways by which we can use that to our advantage.

For example, we could draw inspiration from the way chemosynthetic sulphur bacteria like Picrophyilus, here on the Earth, metabolize: They oxidise Hydrogen Sulphide into Glucose. This is a lengthy process, but it could be summarized as follows; 

6CO₂ + 12H₂S → C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6H₂O +12S

Basically, they use environmental Hydrogen Sulphide and Carbon Dioxide; to synthesize the Glucose they need, with Water and elemental Sulphur as by-products. Say, there weren’t Venaeri-microbes to begin with. No worries, as forward and backward contamination would be off our shoulders; we could introduce our chemosynthetic sulphur-bacteria to the Venusian cloud-tops or harvest them as EVA. They could even be genetically modified, in order to synthesize or catabolise stuff, to fulfil our own needs. For example, the above chemosynthetic process could be done in Venusian sulphur farms, where mass colonies of them could be exploited for sulphur and water. Who knows, the harvesting of various genetically modified Sulphur Bacteria, could turn out to be a profitable industry! It is almost as if our Earthly chemosynthetic Sulfur bacteria are predestined to come with us to Venus! Furthermore, if original Venaeri-microbes were to be a reality, they might even come with better industrial application, as they’d have evolved for millions of years in the Venusian atmosphere.

As a summery, the rules of planetary protection regarding Venus must be ensured for the safety of both the Venusians and the hypothetical Venaeri-microbes. If the Venaeri-microbes are a reality, we could safely exploit their adaptations into industry along with harvesting our own (separately). If Venaeri-microbes are proved to be non-existent, we could solely use our efforts in populating the atmospheres with our own Sulfur bacteria, modify them, and harvest them as an industry

4.        Sagan, C. (1995). Cosmos. [London: Abacus].  Pages 110-118, & Pages 127-131.

23.     Wikram, L.A. (2006). Human Performance Considerations for Mars mission [Paper available online and for download at https://www.apu.edu/static/src/sites/research-science/downloads/human performance mars mission.pdf].

42.        Wikipedia (at 2019, February). Retrieved from (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/planetary_protection).

43.        Walker, R. (2014, January 12). If there is life on Venus Cloud Tops-Do we need to protect Earth- or Venus- Could returned XNA mean goodbye DNA for instance? Retrieved from (https://www.science20.com/robert_inventor/blog/if_there_life_in_venus_cloud_tops_do_we_need_to_protect_earth_or_venus_could_returned_xna_mean_goodbye__).

44.        Wikipedia (at 2019, February). Retrieved from (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_venus).. 

Achinthya Nanayakkara (31.03.2025)

Originally written - 2019