WASHINGTON, USA, Sept. 29, 2026 - NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman issued an internal directive on 29 September loosening the sterilization rules for spacecraft bound for Mars.^[1] He said the existing planetary-protection rules were designed for an earlier era, pointing to improved sterilization technology.^[2] The same day, the COSPAR Panel on Planetary Protection endorsed a proposed update to its Mars policy.^[3] NASA will run a rapid modernization assessment, with recommendations due on 1 December 2026.^[4] On the surface, NASA's Curiosity rover has officially resumed its science mission, on Sol 5029, after laboratory work had been paused by sample-caching constraints.^[5] NASA has also released a new Curiosity image of a sunrise on Mars.^[6] Earlier, on 11 August (sol 4982), the rover captured a dawn panorama of wind-carved yardang cliffs on Mount Sharp.^[7] China aims to finish a new-generation geological map of the entire planet by the end of 2028.^[8] The work will draw on data from the Zhurong rover, which landed in 2021 with the Tianwen-1 mission, to trace the history of water on Mars, including ancient oceans and brief floods.^[9] Research into the planet's past continues. A study led by Shungo Koyama in The Planetary Science Journal found that formaldehyde rained onto ancient Mars 3.6 to 3.8 billion years ago, concentrated over bodies of water.^[10] The National Academies' Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences met from 6 to 8 October to discuss NASA's direction in astrobiology.^[11] A reminder of what is at stake in getting the details right: NASA lost the Mars Climate Orbiter on 23 September 1999, when it entered the atmosphere about 57 km above the surface instead of the planned 226 km.^[12] Investigators traced the loss to a unit mismatch, in which ground software reported thruster impulse in pound-force-seconds instead of newton-seconds.^[13] Impact Insight. Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, about half Earth's width, with a thin carbon-dioxide atmosphere, and planetary-protection rules exist so that Earth microbes do not contaminate places where scientists search for signs of life. There is no direct planetary-defense link: this is Mars exploration, included for readers following the wider solar system.