HR: 1340h
AN: P53B-1255    [Abstracts]
TI: Planetary Protection for future missions to Europa and other icy moons: the more things change...
AU: * Conley, C A
EM: cassie.conley@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Headquarters, Science Mission Directorate 3X63 300 E St. SW, Washington, DC 20546, United States
AU: Race, M
EM: mracemom@aol.com
AF: SETI Institute, 515 N Whisman Rd, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States
AB: NASA maintains a planetary protection policy regarding contamination of extraterrestrial bodies by terrestrial microorganisms and organic compounds, and sets limits intended to minimize or prevent contamination resulting from spaceflight missions. Europa continues to be a high priority target for astrobiological investigations, and other icy moons of the outer planets are becoming increasingly interesting as data are returned from current missions. In 2000, a study was released by the NRC that provided recommendations on preventing the forward contamination of Europa. This study addressed a number of issues, including cleaning and sterilization requirements, the applicability of protocols derived from Viking and other missions to Mars, and the need to supplement spore based culture methods in assessing spacecraft bioload. The committee also identified a number of future studies that would improve knowledge of Europa and better define issues related to forward contamination of that body. The standard recommended by the 2000 study and adopted by NASA uses a probabilistic approach, such that spacecraft sent to Europa must demonstrate a probability less than 10-4 per mission of contaminating an europan ocean with one viable terrestrial organism. A number of factors enter into the equation for calculating this probability, including at least bioload at launch, probability of survival during flight, probability of reaching the surface of Europa, and probability of reaching an europan ocean. Recently, the NASA Planetary Protection Subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council has recommended that the probabilistic approach recommended for Europa be applied to all outer planet icy moons, until another NRC study can be convened to reevaluate the issues in light of recent data. This presentation will discuss the status of current and anticipated planetary protection considerations for missions to Europa and other icy moons.
DE: 5794 Instruments and techniques
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting