NASA criticized for ‘not doing enough’ about planetary protection

In a new report, experts have criticized NASA for not doing enough to prevent us from contaminating other planets, advising to upgrade its rules for keeping the Solar System clean.

National Academics of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) recently published a detailed review on NASA’s planetary protection policies. The review pointed out the flaws, concluding that the current policies are in dire need of an update.

The report detailed that the policies were designed some 50 years ago in an effort to prevent our space missions from polluting the extraterrestrial bodies in our solar system. Planetary protection is vital for safety and for science and also from protecting our planet from foreign microorganisms that can potentially start a global pandemic, reported Futurism.

NASA has made new plans to protect Earth from asteroids

NASA’s Chief Medical Officer, J.D. Polk informed the NASEM committee behind the report that the microorganisms can travel to and from Earth to foreign bodies and mutate in space, causing health problems for astronauts or general public. It can even compromise any research planned to conduct on foreign bodies as well.

Norine Noonan, a member of National Academies committee said, “NASA really does not have a plan, right now, for human missions to Mars… Once you start sending humans to other worlds, the game changes. Because you have to bring people back. Humans are spewing fountains of viruses and bacteria. We have more bacteria on the surface of our body than cells in our body.”

The problem is that with growing technology, space exploration has increased too, but the current policies do not address the possibility of sending humans to Mars, which might happen soon. The policies are also not sufficient enough to regulate private-sector space companies, which are growing rapidly.

The report recommends that those commercial companies should be under the authority of a particular government agency, which they aren’t at present. The committee suggests to set aside funds for an agency for keeping tabs on commercial space companies and to bringing them into the conversation as they update the planetary protection policies.

“This process needs to begin now. If people go to Mars in 2030s, it’s not too early now to be prepared,” said Joseph Alexander, leader of the committee, as per The Washington Post.