> Surprised they went with this decision. ESA explains it like this [1]: > Category II missions are flyby or orbiter missions that venture to worlds where the

> Surprised they went with this decision. ESA explains it like this [1]: > Category II missions are flyby or orbiter missions that venture to worlds where there may be some possibility of life, but the chances of contamination are slim. Then there's category III, where the chances of contamination are deemed greater. > The planetary protection classification for Ganymede is driven by the likelihood that living organisms from Earth, brought to Ganymede by the spacecraft, can make their way down to the ice-ocean interface [...] In turn, this likelihood is deemed so low for Ganymede that it justifies a category II protection level, allowing for the spacecraft to be disposed on Ganymede's surface. [1] https://www.space.com/europe-juice-jupiter-mission-planetary-protection https://www.space.com/europe-juice-jupiter-mission-planetary...