Colin Pillinger, who was Professor of Planetary Sciences at the Open University until he passed away in 2014, claimed a “rampant” outbreak could be on the cards if the space agency is not careful.
He told BBC Radio 4’s “In Our Time” podcast in 2007: “The next logical step [with Mars] is to bring samples back.
“If we have samples in our hands we can use the latest technology to analyse them.
“After that, it becomes a case of ‘we have to go there ourselves’.