NASA is updating its guidelines on how to prevent contamination of the Solar System - The Verge

The rules for exploring the Moon and Mars are getting some changes.

After years of debate, NASA plans to update its guidelines for how much biological contamination of other worlds will be allowed while the agency explores the Solar System.

The new rules would relax some of the agency’s requirements for how to explore the Moon and Mars — two high-profile destinations where NASA hopes to send astronauts in the coming years.

With human exploration such a high priority, NASA now wants to rethink some of the more strict requirements for the Moon and Mars — otherwise human exploration would be too tough to pull off.

Today, NASA released two new “interim directives” that lay out potential changes to the guidelines for exploring the Moon and Mars.

Under current planetary protection rules, the Moon is considered a Category II celestial body, which means there is a “rare chance that contamination carried by a spacecraft could jeopardize future missions.” The Moon received this designation after scientists discovered that there was potentially a lot of water ice lurking on the lunar surface.

The new interim directive would reclassify the Moon as mostly a Category I body, which doesn’t require any planetary protection requirements because there’s no expectation of finding life.

But, NASA would still consider parts of the Moon — notably craters where water ice is thought to exist — as Category II locations.

“As the community of nations goes forward to the Moon and on to Mars, we need to make sure that the United States of America, through NASA and its policy directives, that we are leading, and that’s really what we’re trying to achieve here,” Bridenstine said