Mars Missions and Risk of Interplanetary Contamination
The month of July 2020 has witnessed the launch of two missions to Mars – China’s Tianwen-1, which aims to land on the Red Planet’s surface, and the UAE’s Al Amal (Hope), which does not involve a landing, but an orbital mission that will study the Martian atmosphere.
- The USA is also planning to launch its Perseverance mission by the end of this month.
- It shows the proliferation of ambitious space missions and along with advances in commercial space flight, astrobiologists have expressed concerns about possible ‘interplanetary contamination’.
Interplanetary Contamination
- Interplanetary Contamination refers to the introduction of biological material from one planetary ....