HR: 1340h
AN: P43A-0917    [Abstracts]
TI: Communication Research for NASA's Planetary Protection Program: Science, Risk, Models, Strategy
AU: * Billings, L
EM: lbillings@seti.org
AF: SETI Institute, 3654 Vacation Lane, Arlington, VA 22207 United States
AU: * Billings, L
EM: lbillings@seti.org
AF: Indiana University, 3654 Vacation Lane, Arlington, VA 22207 United States
AB: Planetary protection is the term used to describe policies and practices that are intended to prevent 1) contamination of extraterrestrial environments by microbial Earth life (forward contamination) and 2) contamination of Earth's environment by possible extraterrestrial microbial life (back contamination) in the course of solar system exploration. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the international Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) both have planetary protection policies in place. Because the practice of planetary protection involves many different disciplines and many different national and international and governmental and nongovernmental organizations, communication has always been an important element of the practice. Thus NASA Planetary Protection Office has a long-term communication research initiative under way, addressing legal and ethical issues relating to planetary protection, models and methods of science and risk communication, and communication strategy and planning. With the pace of solar system exploration picking up, the era of solar system sample return under way, and public concerns about biological contamination heightened, communication is an increasingly important concern in the planetary protection community. This paper will describe current activities in communication research for NASA's planetary protection program.
DE: 6699 General or miscellaneous
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting