By 
May 6th, 2026
Image credit: Composite image by Ella Maru Studio for the National Academy of Sciences
Planetary protection sounds like some sort of essential cosmic condom.
The ongoing quest to look for life on other planetary bodies demands that we don’t haul life from Earth via spacecraft, a downer of a dilemma called forward contamination.
At present, spacecraft microbial reduction protocols for outward-bound spacecraft prioritize bacterial spores. But it appears there might be a worrisome breach in planetary protection strategies.
A new study has identified 23 fungal strains isolated from NASA spacecraft assembly cleanrooms that are capable of surviving a pre-launch cleansing of ultraviolet radiation exposure.
For more details, go to my new Scientific American story – “Could this fungus live on Mars? Maybe it already does” – at (open link in incognito window):
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/could-this-fungus-live-on-mars-maybe-it-already-does/
Posted in Space News
The new SA story made the point that planetary protection measures should be just that – to protect planetary and any celestial biosphere’s from each other. People grounded in terrestrial invasive species research understand this. I’m glad your article finally gave Cassie Conley the last word. She has been the only NASA PPO to tell the truth and because of it was fired. NASA’s Nick Benardini basically replaced Conley to rubber stamp JPL missions to Mars and beyond with the “play now pay later” approach. That and the unknown PP approach the Chinese will use to bring back samples from Mars before any other nation is why ICAMSR was put on hiatus with its message about the futility of the NASA cleanroom findings.