Invasion of the “Biologics”

Life on other planets just got more interesting on the Hill

In congressional hearings last week, an intelligence officer involved in the research of federal intelligence on aliens, testified that the remains of an alien spacecraft had been found and contained “nonhuman biologics.” This was bombshell testimony that led to speculation that there was more certainty about life beyond earth.

Retired Maj. David Grusch, who went from being part of the Pentagon's UAP Task Force to becoming a whistleblower, told the House Oversight Committee's national security subcommittee that the U.S. has retrieved "nonhuman" biological matter from the pilots of alien aircraft. He said, "[T]hat was the assessment of people with direct knowledge on the [UAP] program I talked to, that are currently still on the program." He had not personally observed any of this, but said that he based his opinion on the accounts of over 40 witnesses he interviewed over four years in his role with the UAP task force. "My testimony is based on information I have been given by individuals with a longstanding track record of legitimacy and service to this country — many of whom also shared compelling evidence in the form of photography, official documentation, and classified oral testimony," Grusch said. None of that was made public.

So what could this finding of “nonhuman biologics” mean, if true?

How we think about life beyond Earth

The Fermi paradox, articulated by the physicist Enrico Fermi (1901-1954)¹ suggested in the 1950s that there is an apparently high likelihood that technologically advanced civilizations actually exist in the universe and they should be detectable, but the paradox is that we do not have any evidence that they exist.²

So when it comes to “biologics” the risk of finding any is small, but it is not zero. Since the consequences may be very high (see Andromeda Strain); we should take precautions to avoid either forward (visiting other celestial bodies) or back (returning to earth from other celestial bodies) contamination.

The Space Treaty requires member nations to take care not to contaminate other planets and celestial bodies with biological traces like bacteria, viruses and other trace biologics.

States Parties to the Treaty shall pursue studies of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, and conduct exploration of them so as to avoid their harmful contamination and also adverse changes in the environment of the Earth resulting from the introduction of extraterrestrial matter, and where necessary, shall adopt appropriate measures for this purpose.

  The Outer Space Treaty, Art. IX

NASA offers a course on how to detect biological materials on the surface of spacecraft. This practice and protocol is called “planetary protection”, and carries out the obligation in Art. IX of the Outer Space Treaty. I took this Planetary Protection course in preparation for one of my development leaves in 2019 at NASA at the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida.

My legal focus in biodefense laboratory safety translates well to planetary protection. A researcher from SETI once contacted me to discuss existing regulations for biological laboratory safety and whether those same laboratory regulations might be used to handle space “biologics” — should they ever be found, of course. (SETI, is the acronym for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. It was once a unit of NASA but after criticism for spending taxpayer dollars on searching for aliens, it was dissociated from NASA and pushed into a type of non-profit unit —funded by NASA).³

What is this “non-human biologic”?

A biologic in its simplest form has molecules containing carbon. Carbon exists in its natural form as a hexagonal molecule linking six carbon atoms into the shape of a stop sign. It is the backbone of life as we learn in the fourth grade. A more specific biologic would be a protein or even genetic RNA or DNA. But this “nonhuman” descriptor indicates it might be a bacteria or virus or other fragment of genetic material or protein. This is what I would expect to see in this “biologic” that was found in an alien spacecraft. But based on what I learned was a very difficult job of removing all human biologics from a spacecraft before it is launched into space, the “non-human biologic” is likely to be earthly bacteria or viruses contaminating the object that was found within the earth’s atmosphere.

Here is an example of the bacteria found on various surfaces many of which appear clean, that I plated myself, during my course at NASA:

Planetary Protection Regulation?

The first time it was suggested that there was a risk of contaminating other planets or contaminating our own planet with biologics was in 1958 from an article in Science magazine by Dr. Joshua Lederberg. He noted that there was a possibility of finding biological life on other planets but we needed to be careful not to contaminate it with our own biome so we should be careful to not bring contamination back to the earth in a way that it might be harmful to life on Earth.

This article came right before project Ranger in 1958 and the first time planetary protection in history was applied to this U.S. mission. In 1969, Apollo 11 was launched,⁴ and the first official published regulation for planetary protection was published by NASA in the Federal Register. These rules governed the quarantine of the astronauts upon their return to Earth from the moon. Time magazine reported it as a protocol to guard against the unknown. They wrote that the “moon voyagers” will be treated literally as if they had the plague and they said this was “to guard against the remote possibility that they are harboring unknown lunar organisms that might endanger life on Earth”. This remained the law and policy for Apollo 11, 12 and 14 but as time went by there was less and less concern that there were hazards to man because none had been discovered, and the ambition to go to other celestial bodies seemed to evaporate.

So in 1977, George Lowe the acting NASA Administrator declared that the policy would no longer be followed because it was no longer needed to quarantine astronauts upon return. However it was not until April 26, 1991 that the regulation was officially withdrawn from the laws of the United States with an announcement in the Federal Register. The explanation for removal of the policy was simply,

“. . . since it has served its purpose and is no longer in keeping with current policy.”

This may have been to placate a Congress that was anxious to privatize NASA and end the often criticized cost of any program that had goals of reaching other planets. By eliminating a policy of how to address planetary protection, it signaled we would no longer be planning to visit other planets.

Now that the United States has at least once in the last five years, announced a program to travel to Mars, the regulation of planetary protection should be reconsidered.

Each member nation is also responsible for its citizens activities of contaminating other planets, too. So when this bombshell testimony about “nonhuman biologics” being found in an alien spacecraft, William Shatner, star of StarTrek fame, said the Congressional hearings were “ridiculous”, but then he is also ready to send your DNA to the moon as a new investor in “Space Crystals”.⁵ Many space burial companies are springing up,⁶ and that ensures human biological contamination is spread around the universe — literally.

It may be time to rethink planetary protection protocols, our compliance with the Outer Space Treaty and whether humans have already contaminated the universe. What can we do to truly protect ourselves against alien “nonhuman biologics” when it may be impossible to know whether biological materials on any alien spacecraft is “alien” or whether it is our bacteria we have spread around the universe?

For more on this topic, see my article “Planetary Protection for Human Health: the Risk is not Zero” (2019).⁷

NOTE: My title for this article is a play on the name of a 1978 science fiction movie about the invasion of seeds from space that seem destined to take over the world by (spoiler alert) taking over the bodies of humans, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_the_Body_Snatchers

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Fermi

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

3. https://www.seti.org/seti

4. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html

5. https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/entertainment/2023/07/14/william-shatner-wants-to-send-your-dna-to-the-moon

6. https://www.celestis.com/celestis-dna

7. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3830156