A new NASA directive seeks to loosen “planetary protection” rules meant to avoid the contamination other worlds with microbial life from Earth.
The policy shift arrived via a message to NASA personnel that was obtained and shared yesterday by the independent watchdog sites NASA Watch and Astrobiology.com. In it, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman wrote that procedures for avoiding contamination “must reflect our current scientific knowledge” and argued that this knowledge has shifted since the current rules were established decades ago. The change is meant to “enable NASA to explore faster, increase science output, and prepare for human missions,” the message stated, with an emphasis on the space agency’s long-term goal of sending astronauts to Mars.
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