Tag: planetary_protection

What if a rock from Mars could tell its own story in a cleanroom on Earth? The simplest fantasy—send a lander, fling a sample into Martian orbit, let an orbital courier grab it, and drop it into a lab—has become a…

Mars doesn’t crave polite words or fluffy promises. It tests every rookie in space programs with a brutal question: can the mission touch its surface without dragging Earth biology along? Cat IV isn’t a cute label or a…

Terraforming or Preservation: The Ethical Dilemma of Transforming Other Worlds Imagine a lush, verdant world, teeming with life - a second Earth, ready for humanity to colonize. But at what cost? The debate over…