NASA's Apollo 11 Moon Quarantine: A Publicity Stunt?
NASA's Apollo 11 Moon Quarantine was mostly for show, according to a study published in the science history journal Isis. The study shows that NASA officials knew that lunar germs could pose an existential threat, and their lunar quarantine probably wouldn't keep Earth safe if such a threat did exist. The study also offers useful lessons as NASA and other space agencies prepare to collect samples from Mars and other worlds in the solar system for study on Earth.