Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in ... - The Black Vault

Exploring the Unknown 741
After two landings on the Moon, Apollo 11, and Apollo 12, and no sign of dangerous life
forms being returned to Earth, NASA was contemplating the end of the quarantine that
had been in place for those two missions. The National Academy of Sciences was asked to
examine the question. This report contains the recommendation of the ad hoc committee set
up to prepare the Academy’s response. It also provides an overview of the testing for signs of
life done on the returned lunar samples.
Report of
Meeting on
Review of Lunar Quarantine Program
February 17, 1970
At
The Manned Spacecraft Center
National Aeronautical and Space Administration
Houston, Texas
Space Science Board
National Academy of Sciences
2101 Constitution Avenue
Washington, D.C.
PREFACE
On December 24, 1969 the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration requested the President of the National Academy of Sciences
to form a committee to review the Academy’s 1964 recommendations for a lunar
quarantine program in light of information acquired from lunar flights, Apollos 11
and 12. The President referred the request to the Space Science Board where it
was favorably considered at the Board’s meeting on January 12-13, 1970. An ad hoc
committee was authorized by the Space Science Board to consider new evidence
accumulated about the earth’s moon since its 1964 conference and to make
recommendations pertinent to the continuation of the lunar quarantine program.
The ad hoc committee met at the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration’s Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas on February 17,
1970. A listing of the participants is shown.
The agenda for the meeting provided for an exchange of views and facts
in geology, geochemistry, and biology, including microbiology and medicine. We
believe the varied positions were thoroughly argued.