When Biospheres Collide : A History of NASA’s Planetary Protection Programs: A History of NASA’s Planetary Protection Programs

By Meltzer, Michael

Book Id: WPLBN0002821829
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 17.36 MB
Reproduction Date: 11/14/2012

Title:	When Biospheres Collide : A History of NASA’s Planetary Protection Programs: A History of NASA’s Planetary Protection Programs
Author:	Meltzer, Michael
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Non Fiction, Science, Planetary Protection
Collections:	Authors Community, Technology
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Member Page:	Brian Dunbar
Citation APA MLA Chicago Meltzer, B. M. (n.d.). When Biospheres Collide : A History of NASA’s Planetary Protection Programs. Retrieved from http://gutenberg.cc/

Description
The history of planetary protection is presented by tracing the responses to interplanetary concerns on NASA's missions.

Summary
Each time a space vehicle visits another world it runs the risk of forever changing that extraterrestrial environment. We are surrounded on Earth by a mélange of different microorganisms, and if some of these hitchhike onboard a space mission, they could contaminate and start colonies on a different planet. Such an occurrence would irrevocably alter the nature of that world, compromise all future scientific exploration of the body, and possibly damage any extant life on it. And by inadvertently carrying exotic organisms back to Earth on our spacecraft, we risk the release of biohazardous materials into our own ecosystem. This book presents the history of planetary protection by tracing the responses to the above concerns on NASA's missions to the Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and many smaller bodies of our solar system.