HR: 1340h
AN: P43A-0918    [Abstracts]
TI: Forging Planetary Protection Requirements for the Next Decade: Policies and Discoveries
AU: * Rummel, J D
EM: jrummel@hq.nasa.gov
AF: Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546 United States
AB: Preventing the biological contamination of sensitive areas on other bodies of the solar system while protecting the Earth from the potential hazard of returned samples from locations that might support an indigenous biota are both of critical importance to the future success of science and exploration missions. In 2002, the ICSU Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) published an international consensus planetary protection policy that outlines requirements to achieve these goals, driven by a desire to preserve science opportunities and by simple prudence. Translating such a policy into requirements at both the mission and subsystem level, however, requires a more intimate understanding of both the sources of contamination and the accessible habitats on other worlds than is now the case--and it may always be that way. As the array of prospective missions grows, new data from current missions and the reexamination of previous results will drive future planetary protection concerns and attendant requirements. A framework for assessing required contamination control measures for space missions must be developed to be robust to our emerging understanding of potential extraterrestrial habitats, while making full use of the increased understanding of biology that we see envision today--particularly those aspects of biology that could affect the survival of Earth microbes on other worlds. Likewise, the development of a greater understanding of biology and its potential can help guide requirements for testing a returned sample for possible biohazards. Current thinking on a strategy to provide such a framework will be provided in this discussion.
DE: 6215 Extraterrestrial materials
DE: 6324 Legislation and regulations
DE: 6620 Science policy
DE: 0400 Biogeosciences
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting