This is a draft article I wrote for wikipedia. about the legal issues and requirements for public debate for return of a sample to a Mars Sample Return Receiving Facility. It is background material for Need For Caution For An Early Mars Sample Return - Opinion Piece.

Background material for How Valuable is Pristine Mars for Humanity - Opinion Piece? for those who want to research into the official studies on back contamination issues and design of the Mars Sample Receiving Facility.

One day, perhaps, brave astronauts will set forth to colonize the planet Mars. However human colonies can't be sterilized in the way a rover can be, so they may conflict with the desires of astrobiologists to keep Mars biologically pristine. Would be colonists can find this hard to understand. What is so special about an apparently lifeless or almost lifeless planet?

To understand why many scientists value a pristine Mars so much, we need to look into its geological history.

Martian micro-organisms would be of extraordinary interest for the life sciences, especially if interestingly different from Earth life. In the past Mars was much more habitable than it is now, so most of the focus was on past life, and deep habitats beyond the reach of our rovers. Recent research suggests the intriguing possibility of life in tiny micro-habitats within the top few cms of soil and in some cases, right on the surface.

This is an article I wrote for wikipedia to cover the diversity of published views on Mars Sample Return.

Sadly it was deleted from wikipedia. So I present it here as background material for: Need For Caution For An Early Mars Sample Return - Opinion Piece

---

The idea of a Mars sample return mission (MSR) is to return samples of rock, soil, dust, etc from Mars for study on Earth. Just about everyone involved in the debate agrees that  a MSR is well worth doing at some point.