How NASA makes sure we don't contaminate the Solar System

[guohua]

So, we're regulated by NASA and Russia and China are Regulated By Whom?

Also read the wording very carefully, the way it's written you'd get the idea we might of been visiting Mars or Europa.

So you want to explore the Solar System? You’re going to need to clean your spacecraft first. Any missions that NASA sends to other worlds nearby have to adhere to something called planetary protection. It’s the rule of preventing "harmful contamination" of the places we explore in the Solar System. That means making sure exploring spacecraft don’t spread too many harmful Earth’s organisms to all of our planetary neighbors.

Planetary protection was initially created in service of humanity’s oldest question: are we alone in the Universe? Back in the 1950s, people interested in exploring space recognized that biological contamination could pose a threat to finding extraterrestrial life elsewhere in our Solar System. Life exists everywhere here on Earth, so Earth’s organisms will likely be on any vehicles we send out into space. And that could make it difficult for spacecraft to distinguish between an alien life form on another planet — or a stowaway microbe from Earth. "We would find it very difficult to identify Mars life if we already contaminated the planet with Earth life," says Catharine Conley, NASA’s Planetary Protection officer.

This dilemma led to the formation of planetary protection. Less contamination preserves the integrity of the Solar System’s planets and protects them from any damage that Earth’s organisms might cause. And it means that missions looking for life on other worlds will avoid misclassifying Earth life as ET.

NASA has different standards for planetary protection depending on where you want to go in the Solar System, though. If you want to go to places like the Moon or asteroids, the planetary protection rules for your spacecraft aren’t that strict. But for special places like Mars and Europa — where conditions may allow Earth life to grow — your spacecraft will need to go through some sterilization procedures. That way, you won’t inadvertently start any interplanetary microbe colonies.

 Source

[senona]

The flip side to worrying about us contaminating a planet is the opposite --   the planet contaminating us (Earth).  
Which reminds me of an older syfy movie.

In the movie (cannot recall title of movie), they were able to go back in time (the dinosaur age) but they had to stay on a specific path, not to step off of it.
Of course, you always have that one dweeb who just loses his balance and steps off, all the while not telling anyone so he could be decontaminated before he came back into present time.

Long story short, the guy brings back plant life from millions of years ago on his shoes from when he stepped off the path and the ecosystem from that time period starts taking over and in a bad way.


So that could be another possibility to the "planetary protection" -- they do not want something being track back to Earth to mess up our ecosystem and way of life.
The contamination theory could be applied to both planets actually.
 
 




Damn, guess I need to make an appointment to get my spacecraft sterilized.
Would not want to accidentally start any interplanetary microbe colonies.

[Mystic Wanderer]

Yes, I suppose after they contaminated Mars with roaches during one of their visits, they decided they better start cleaning the spacecraft before flights.
(Discussed on one of my previous threads.)

No wonder our space brothers don't want to welcome us into the cosmic community! 
I wouldn't like someone bringing roaches into my home either.