The booklet was created by Martin Marietta in 1967. It was orignially created as a sterilization training program for Martin Marietta but became a reference guide for staff working on the Viking mission. It includes information on hardware sterilization, planetary quarantine, particulate counts, NASA procedures, sampling techniques and thresholds, conversion tables and more. The Viking sterilization became the industry standard and has been the only mission to adhere to the extreme heat sterlixation processes for landed missions.