A biocontainment facility designed to protect Earth from potentially hazardous biotic contaminants from space should be part of a planned NASA base on the moon, a policy paper maintains.
"Humanity is entering a new era of space exploration, but our planetary protection strategies have not kept pace with the risks associated with returning extraterrestrial samples to Earth," said paper co-author Frederick I. Moxley, Director of Strategic Threat Analysis and Research Laboratories, an Idaho-based consultancy.
"The proposed facility would essentially act as a firewall between Earth and any potentially hazardous live organisms that could accompany returning future space missions," said Moxley, whose co-author is Anthony Ricciardi, a James McGill Professor of Biology and the Director of the Bieler School of Environment at McGill University.
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