If any evidence of life is eventually found on the moon, it may well be because earthly microorganisms hitched rides on the Russian and U.S. spacecraft that have crashed on the lunar surface. To avoid similar celestial contamination that might obscure or alternative life forms before they are identified and studied, both U.S. and Soviet scientists plan to give future unmanned planetary probes a thorough cleansing before they leave the earth. At a conference on spacecraft sterilization sponsored by NASA at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, scientists explained how the chances of contaminating Mars will be reduced to less than...
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