Image: Heat sterilisation of Exomars parachute

A technician places a nearly 70 kg parachute designed for ESA and Roscosmos's ExoMars 2020 mission inside the dry heater steriliser of the Agency's Life, Physical Sciences and Life Support Laboratory, based in its Netherlands ...

Seeding the Milky Way with life using 'Genesis missions'

When exploring other planets and celestial bodies, NASA missions are required to abide by the practice known as "planetary protection." This practice states that measures must be taken during the designing of a mission to ...

Putting the ethics into planetary protection

In the coming decades, as we gear up for a more in-depth search for life on Mars, as well as visits to potentially habitable ocean moons in the outer Solar System, should scientists start addressing the ethical concerns of ...

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