Forward-contamination
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Forward-contamination is the contamination of other worlds with Earth microbes. The risk of forward-contamination is twofold: that human beings may accidentally seed a previously sterile world, thus creating "extraterrestrials" that are really of terrestrial origin; or that an actual alien biosphere could be devastated by Earth's bacteria.
Forward-contamination has been demonstrated by the apparent survival on the Moon of Streptococcus bacteria on Surveyor 3. No longer thought to be true. ([[1]])
Given the impossibility of sending a bacteria-free human being into space, forward-contamination will remain an issue for as long as we explore space. Assuming a manned mission eventually reaches Mars, for example, it is inevitable that a microbial soup will be released into the environment of the red planet. The best known fictional portrayal of forward-contamination is in The War of the Worlds, where would-be alien conquerors are killed off by Earth microbes.
