Planetary Protection

Protecting planets from the introduction of non-native organisms has long been a concern in space exploration. The Executive Summary of the Report on preventing the forward contamination of Mars by National Research Council of the National Academies, Washington D.C states: “Preventing the forward contamination of Mars is the subject of this Report, and techniques designed to protect Mars from Earth-originating organisms that could interfere with the compromise scientific investigations,these intriguing scientific results raise potentially important question about protecting the planet Mars itself”. The concept might be extended to the Moon. Planetary protection seeks to safeguard earth as well as other planets and celetial bodies from the potential contamination created during exploration of space. The Book aims to provide guidelines for the formulation of a Planetary Park System for Moon and Mars to protect and preserve the lunar and martian environment. For that purpose, comparisons were made with the existing regimes in other areas of law i.e. Law of the Seas Regime and Antarctic Regime. Some useful principles/concepts have been identified which could be considered for adoption