Preventing the Forward Contamination of Mars
Language: English
Pages: 166
ISBN: 030909724X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Recent spacecraft and robotic probes to Mars have yielded data that are changing our understanding significantly about the possibility of existing or past life on that planet. Coupled with advances in biology and life-detection techniques, these developments place increasing importance on the need to protect Mars from contamination by Earth-borne organisms. To help with this effort, NASA requested that the NRC examine existing planetary protection measures for Mars and recommend changes and further research to improve such measures. This report discusses policies, requirements, and techniques to protect Mars from organisms originating on Earth that could interfere with scientific investigations. It provides recommendations on cleanliness and biological burden levels of Mars-bound spacecraft, methods to reach those levels, and research to reduce uncertainties in preventing forward contamination of Mars.
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presented below is based on current protocols (i.e., Viking-era protocols and the use of spore counts for determining bioburden) that should be put in place until the committee’s recommendations for the transition to modern methods are implemented. 8This included consideration of input from Brian K. Muirhead, chief engineer, JPL, “Mars Science Laboratory Planetary Protection Categorization Strategy,” briefing to NRC Space Studies Board, May 5, 2004, Diversa Corporation, San Diego, California.
Administration NASA Handbook NASA Management Instruction NASA Procedural Requirements National Research Council National Science Foundation OCSSG Organic Contamination Science Steering Group PAH Pc PCR Pg PP polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon probability of contamination polymerase chain reaction probability of growth planetary protection R&D RNA rRNA research and development ribonucleic acid ribosomal RNA SHARAD SSB shallow radar Space Studies Board TBD TES T-RFLP to be determined thermal
growth) are inherently probabilistic. Even if each previous mission did have some probability of having contaminated Mars, those probabilities were likely small (see Chapters 4 and 5), so that care with subsequent missions is still important for keeping at a low level the probability of contaminating Mars summed over all missions. The committee illustrates this concept with an analogy: even if the campfires of a dozen campers have previously posed the risk of a forest fire, it is still important
individual assessment (e.g., PS, the probability of surviving spaceflight, is sometimes written as a product of PVT, the probability of surviving exposure to space vacuum and temperature, and PUV, the probability of surviving exposure to ultraviolet light, during the voyage). For alternate conventions in writing Equation 2.1 see, for example, Klein (1991) and NRC (1978, 1992). The formulation given here is perhaps closest to that used by Stabekis, as described in P.D. Stabekis, Lessons learned
procedures for the microbial examination of space hardware and associated clean-room assembly and pre-launch environments. NPR 5340.1C (NASA, 2005b) is an informal reissue of NHB 5340.1B. A revised NPR 5340.1D is pending formal approval at the time of this writing. 14Various pertinent parameters and specifications are used to address how contamination controls will be implemented on a particular mission. Appendix B of NPR 8020.12C (NASA, 2005a) provides quantitative values and acceptable ranges
