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How Do We Keep Our Space Probes From Contaminating Other Planets?

-- | January 6, 2014

Question: What are the chances of interplanetary space crafts, probes and rovers carrying the air-borne bacteria and viruses and dispersing them in the target planet since they are made and assembled in earth? (Especially the rovers which landed on Mars and the Huygens probe which landed on Titan, since they are pristine planets devoid of any life forms and bacteria & viruses known survive in very extreme conditions contaminating those planets via probes). — Vinod

Answer: Scientists have been concerned about this issue since the early days of space exploration. There is a committee of scientists, called the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), that develops recommendations for avoiding interplanetary contamination by space probes. The aim of the current regulations is to keep the number of micro-organisms on an interplanetary space probe low enough so that the probability of contamination of the target body to a level no greater than 1 in 10,000. The details of the rules governing the potential contamination by interplanetary space probes is described very nicely in the Wikipedia article on Planetary Protection.

Jeff Mangum

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