What are planetary protection regulations.

We are getting closer to finding life outside of Earth, we are increasingly finding planets, moons and exoplanets where liquid water exists and the elements that we assume are essential for life to emerge, what would happen if they brought bacteria from another planet, how would it adapt? organisms to earth to this form of life, that is why NASA has a special protocol, a protocol that arises from other previous regulations. There is a Japanese film that they made a series in 2008 called The Andromeda Menace, it is based on a 1969 novel by Michael Krypton, they made a film in 1971 that is very good, although it seems very old-fashioned, it is entertaining and watchable, the I recommend if you can catch it somewhere.

It is based on the story of an extraterrestrial microorganism that arrives on Earth aboard a probe that lands in a town in the Western United States, you already know the typical towns where aliens land and these things happen, at least in Hollywood movies. , the thing is that the bacteria infects the town's inhabitants and they all die with their blood transformed into dust, all except a baby and an old drunk. The author describes a hypothetical case of an extraterrestrial life form that accustomed to extreme living conditions, when it reaches earth it finds a feast of food and wonderful conditions to expand and that is something that can happen, if it is a life compatible with ours, that is, it is based on water and basic elements like those that form us, that form of life that can exist on Mars. There are plans from China and the United States and their allies within international programs to bring fresh samples of Martian soil and there are scientists who have warned of the risk of bringing fresh samples from Mars directly to Earth, in fact what they propose is that they should be studied first in the International Space Stations in case some type of contamination occurs with some bacteria or element from Mars, because of course, because if they exist and have developed with elements similar to ours, they may have developed and evolved in environments ends with which if they come to earth they can consider that paradise.

They can expand uncontrollably, they would not have elements and conditions that control them and they would find a lot of fresh food to expand, they could be extremely dangerous for life here on earth, so there are some important protocols, a little before With the publication of this novel on January 27, 1967, the first regulation on this matter and others related to outer space was signed, that is the outer space treaty of the United Nations Organization and it is the legal framework that the states of the United Nations then They have to take into account the time of space exploration. In the case of the moon, for example, it is said that in order to explore it, measures will be taken so that the current balance of its environment is not disturbed, either by the introduction of harmful modifications, or by its harmful contamination with foreign substances, or by any other means. Parties will also take measures to avoid harming the earth's environment, whether through the introduction of extraterrestrial substances or any other type.