COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy

(20 October 2002; Amended 24 March 2005)

APPROVED BY THE BUREAU AND COUNCIL, WORLD SPACE COUNCIL HOUSTON, TEXAS, USA

(Prepared by the COSPAR/IAU Workshop on Planetary Protection, 4/02 with updates 10/02)

Preamble

Noting that COSPAR has concerned itself with questions of biological contamination and spaceflight since its very inception, and

noting that Article IX of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (also known as the UN Space Treaty of 1967) states that:

States Parties to the Treaty shall pursue studies of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, and conduct exploration of them so as to avoid their harmful contamination and also adverse changes in the environment of the Earth resulting from the introduction of extraterrestrial matter, and where necessary, shall adopt appropriate measures for this purpose (UN 1967).

therefore, COSPAR maintains and promulgates this planetary protection policy for the reference of spacefaring nations, both as an international standard on procedures to avoid organic-constituent and biological contamination in space exploration, and to provide accepted guidelines in this area to guide compliance with the wording of this UN Space Treaty and other relevant international agreements.

Policy

COSPAR,

Referring to COSPAR Resolutions 26.5 and 26.7 of 1964, the Report of the Consultative Group on Potentially Harmful Effects of Space Experiments of 1966, the Report of the same Group of 1967, and the Report...