History
In 1967, most of the world's nations ratified the United Nations Outer Space Treaty. The policy of protecting pristine celestial environments is accepted with virtual unanimity, and has been incorporated into positive international law. The treaty's planetary protection provisions stipulate that nations 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." The United Nations incorporated these provisions in its 1979 Moon Treaty governing the activities of states on the Moon and other celestial bodies, and in the Vienna Declaration of 1999.
Scientists are regularly discovering lifeforms on Earth in the most unexpected places (see: extremophile), so biological contamination risks need to be continuously reviewed in the light of new knowledge. For this reason, planetary protection recommendations are regularly updated, particularly at COSPAR’s (Committee on Space Research) scientific assembly convened every 2 years.
Read more about this topic: Planetary Protection
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“When the coherence of the parts of a stone, or even that composition of parts which renders it extended; when these familiar objects, I say, are so inexplicable, and contain circumstances so repugnant and contradictory; with what assurance can we decide concerning the origin of worlds, or trace their history from eternity to eternity?”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
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—Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947)