COSPAR (Committee on Space Research) is an international scientific committee under the International Science Council (ISC), founded in 1958. COSPAR maintains the Planetary Protection Policy — descended from Article IX of the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty — which governs forward- and back-contamination requirements for space missions.
A 2026 COSPAR policy update, surfaced at abscicon26 (src-abscicon26-media-tips-2-2026-05), introduces a dedicated icy-worlds category with the following provisions:
- A formal definition of icy worlds.
- Empirical bounds on the driest and coldest conditions under which Earth life can survive.
- A 1,000-year biological-exploration period during which contamination controls apply to icy-world targets.
The update constrains future missions to europa-clipper, JUICE, and any Enceladus/Europa drill operation. See icy-worlds-protection-policy.