July 2021
Nitrous oxide – a green propellant for commercial space exploration
...the propellant that, on reaching a certain value, turn hydrogen peroxide into an unstable substance. Moreover, the contamination build-up is an exponential process, not easily detected and suspected to have caused a number of deadly accidents. Liquid...
October 2024
International space law - the beginning of the end?
... addition, as missions to the Moon and Mars for exploitation of natural space resources take place, the possibility of contamination of these bodies may be expected. Meanwhile, there has been a recent unilateral move to formally and expressly negate...
April 2025
Space sustainability and the role of space situational awareness
...containing relevant international space law regulations. The framework states in Article IX that parties should “avoid harmful contamination of space and celestial bodies;” while articles I, II, and III talk about the fair and inclusive international...
06 July 2015
From SETI to black crust on Churyumov-Gerasimenko: looking for alien life
..., including ROOM’s own Christopher J. Newman, point out – we may need entirely new ethical paradigms for addressing contamination in space and on earth . In spite of our focus on germs, there are plenty of enthusiasts hoping to receive a signal from...
October 2015
Finding Earth-like worlds: the tale of how Kepler-452b was discovered
...transits. We wanted to look in the neighbourhood of the star, to make sure there wasn’t a dim background star system contaminating the signal. So we made high resolution adaptive optics observations at the Keck Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. We knew...
August 2016
Polish Space Agency pursues task of developing country’s space expertise
... Sun, planets and small celestial bodies in the solar system, remote sensing by satellites (for ascertaining the contamination of bodies of water, forests, the water content of soil, and weather forecasting), discovering exoplanets, and collaborating...
