NASA’s Planetary Protection Review Addresses Changing Reality of Space Exploration
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA released a report Friday with recommendations from the Planetary Protection Independent Review Board (PPIRB) the agency established in response to a recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report and a recommendation from the NASA Advisory Council.
With NASA, international, and commercial entities planning bold missions to explore our solar system and return samples to Earth, the context for planetary protection is rapidly changing. NASA established the PPIRB to conduct a thorough review of the agency’s policies.
Planetary protection establishes guidelines for missions to other solar system bodies so they are not harmfully contaminated for scientific purposes by Earth biology and Earth, in turn, is protected from harmful contamination from space.
The board’s report assesses a rapidly changing environment where more samples from other solar system bodies will be returned to Earth, commercial and international entities are discussing new kinds of solar system missions, and NASA’s Artemis program is planning human missions to the Moon and eventually to Mars.
The report discusses 34 findings, and 43 recommendations from the PPIRB, which was chaired by planetary scientist Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute to address future NASA missions and proposed missions by other nations and the private sector that include Mars sample return, robotic missions to other bodies, eventual human missions to Mars, and the exploration of ocean worlds in the outer solar system.
“The landscape for planetary protection is moving very fast. It’s exciting now that for the first time, many different players are able to contemplate missions of both commercial and scientific interest to bodies in our solar system,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “We want to be prepared in this new environment with thoughtful and practical policies that enable scientific discoveries and preserve the integrity of our planet and the places we’re visiting.”
The PPIRB, comprised of a high-level team of 12 experts and stakeholders from science, engineering and industry, examined how to update planetary protection policies and procedures in light of current capabilities. Such guidelines have periodically been updated and inform exploration by spacefaring nations that have signed the Outer Space Treaty since the 1960s.
“Planetary science and planetary protection techniques have both changed rapidly in recent years, and both will likely continue to evolve rapidly,” Stern said. “Planetary protection guidelines and practices need to be updated to reflect our new knowledge and new technologies, and the emergence of new entities planning missions across the solar system. There is global interest in this topic, and we also need to address how new players, for example in the commercial sector, can be integrated into planetary protection.”
NASA plans to begin a dialogue about the PPIRB report’s recommendations with stakeholders, and international and commercial partners to help build a new chapter for conducting planetary missions, and planetary protection policies and procedures.
For more information about Planetary Protection, visit:
https://sma.nasa.gov/sma-disciplines/planetary-protection
To read the full report of the Planetary Protection Independent Review Board, visit:
9 responses to “NASA’s Planetary Protection Review Addresses Changing Reality of Space Exploration”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
…”There is global interest in this topic, and we also need to address how new players, for example in the commercial sector, can be integrated into planetary protection.”…
Lovin’ this new NASA.
I am far less concerned about our transporting bugs to Mars than I am about Mar’s bugs coming back to earth.
In fact, I fully support the idea of not allowing somebody to come back for the first 10-20 years or so. After that, if they wish to come back, have them do a 6 month stop at the lunar base and make sure that they are fully checked out and then brought to earth.
That is why it is important to establish a base on one of the Martian moons to study Mars before sending individuals to the surface.
No, it isn’t. There are rational reasons to put people on the martian moons, but avoiding notional cross-contamination is not among them.
Not a bad idea.
Though again, it is possible (not probable) for those moons to have life.
BUT, I suspect that they are far more like our moon; pretty lifeless.
Not difficult to determine either anent the surfaces or the depths of Phobos and Deimos. One could likely drill all the way to the center of both at relatively modest expense if one wished to be absolutely certain no sub-surface niche for native micro-organisms was overlooked.
Mars and Earth have been exchanging mass – and microorganisms if Mars ever had any – for eons before there were ever even people, never mind government bureaucrats. Planetary protection is a combination of paranoid fantasy and a small government bureaucracy looking to follow in the trail of “climate change” by riding a non-existent threat to a position of size and influence.
true.
We HAVE been exchanging mass and microbes. However, the mass of microbes in Mars is likely far far less than what is here. As such, we are less likely to have their microbes here. And with our diversity, while we have no doubt sent some there, the majority likely have not gone there.
Regardless, as I suggested, it is prudent to be careful in bringing things back to Earth.
After all, if wrong, the results could be catastrophic to humanity and earth.
That is hardly a given even assuming the actual existence of martian micro-organisms.
Prudent is one thing. Street-corner paranoid loony is quite another.
It would be straightforward and cheap to simply look at samples of local martian dirt, doused with some sort of nutrient “soup,” under a microscope soon after any human expedition to Mars arrives. If there is no evidence of native microbial life, then no further precautions would be in order.
Repeating this exercise for each significantly different sort of geology encountered and with any drilled core samples would also be SOP. No life, no extraordinary measures required.
After a few expeditions and a bit of deep drilling it should be possible to pronounce Mars dead and get on with whatever we have in mind to do there without reference to further Andromeda Strain fantasies.