NASA’s Office of Planetary Protection
The mission of the Office of Planetary Protection is to promote the responsible exploration of the solar system by implementing and developing efforts that protect the science, explored environments, and Earth. The objectives of planetary protection are several-fold and include: Preserving our ability to study other worlds as they exist in their natural states; avoiding the biological contamination of explored environments that may obscure our ability to find life elsewhere – if it exists; and to ensure that we take prudent precautions to protect Earth’s biosphere in case life does exist elsewhere.
