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I forgot which probe and celestial objects it was, but at one point NASA was investigating a moon around Jupiter or Saturn, thought about dumping it there for n
by dontupvoteme 3y ago
I forgot which probe and celestial objects it was, but at one point NASA was investigating a moon around Jupiter or Saturn, thought about dumping it there for nice photos (it was out of fuel iirc) and then they realized that it might have life on it.
So they intentionally crashed it into the planet instead as to not potentially contaminate said moon - possibly our first implementation of the prime directive!
- dotnet00 3y agoWe did that with Cassini on Saturn, and we intend to do that with Juno on Jupiter. But, on the other hand, while measures are taken to ensure that spacecraft headed to other bodies are not contaminated, we've also found that life still often manages to find a way. So I thibk the various landings on Mars, and the lander on Titan (plus the quadcopter heading there later this decade) are somewhat likely to have brought along some extremely resilient (but dormant) life anyway.