On March 19th, astronauts onboard the International Space Station checked themselves for microbes before stepping outside on a space walk. It was a first-ever test of planetary protection technology that, one day, could keep ...
Space Exploration
Mar 23, 2009
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A new report that could make it simpler to send spacecraft to some areas of Mars while still protecting the planet from Earth-based contamination was presented today at a press conference at the 53rd annual meeting of the ...
Space Exploration
Oct 7, 2021
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The Institute of Planetary Research at DLR (German Aerospace Center) is starting construction of a new Sample Analysis Laboratory (SAL) dedicated to the study of rock and dust samples from planetary bodies such as asteroids ...
Space Exploration
Sep 16, 2021
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In Michael Crichton's 1969 novel The Andromeda Strain, a deadly alien microbe hitches a ride to Earth aboard a downed military satellite and scientists must race to contain it. While fictional, the plot explores a very real ...
Space Exploration
May 8, 2020
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NASA released a report Friday with recommendations from the Planetary Protection Independent Review Board (PPIRB) the agency established in response to a recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report ...
Space Exploration
Oct 19, 2019
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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 ...
Space Exploration
Mar 13, 2019
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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 ...
Space Exploration
Aug 13, 2018
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Elon Musk has a plan, and it's about as audacious as they come. Not content with living on our pale blue dot, Musk and his company SpaceX want to colonize Mars, fast. They say they'll send a duo of supply ships to the red ...
Space Exploration
Oct 2, 2017
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There may be no bigger question than whether we are alone in our solar system. As our spacecraft find new clues about the presence of liquid water now or in the past on Mars, the possibility of some kind of life there looks ...
Space Exploration
Sep 29, 2017
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The recent announcement by NASA confirming the presence of liquid water on Mars pulls planetary protection into the spotlight and is causing some serious head-scratching in the scientific community. On the one hand, having ...
Space Exploration
Oct 29, 2015
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