Abstract:
NASA planetary protection, formerly planetary quarantine, is a set of regulations for extraterrestrial space missions which addresses applicable COSPAR resolutions, and ultimately derives from a 1967 United Nations treaty (the "Moon treaty"). The purpose of the NASA regulations is set forth in a basic policy, NPD 8020.7E (Ref. 1). The purposes are: to protect extraterrestrial objects from terrestrial biological contamination that may interfere with the search for extant life or its remnants or its precursors; and to protect the Earth from the possible hazards of an extraterrestrial sample return
