It's every astronomer's worst nightmare: a future crewed mission to Mars or even beyond goes terribly awry when astronauts contaminate another planet with destructive microbes from Earth, devastating ...

Aslunar exploration intensifies, the potential for contamination of the Moon’s surface by spacecraft exhaust has become a ...

Recent experiments have unveiled the remarkable resilience of an Earth bacterium that survived the extreme conditions of a rocket launch. Scientists have now simulated Martian conditions and ...

Any project, supported or not by a committee, that is currently being worked on or is considered active, and will have an end date. The Committee on Planetary Protection (CoPP) monitors progress ...