Mars Sample Return backwardcontamination – Strategic adviceand requirements - Report from the ESF-ESSC Study Group on MSR PlanetaryProtection Requirements.
2012
As planetary protection regulations have a signifi- 3
cant impact on mission design, engineering and
overall cost, it is critical that the guidelines are
implemented with proper justification and are reevaluated
on a regular basis.
In June 2011, the European Space Agency
asked the European Science Foundation (ESF) in
coordination with its European Space Sciences
Committee (ESSC) to perform a study regarding
planetary protection regulations for a Mars Sample
Return (MSR) mission. Specifically, ESF was asked
to perform a study on the level of assurance of
preventing an unintended release of Martial particles
into the Earth’s biosphere in the frame of an
MSR mission. ESF commissioned a study group of
12 high-level, international and multidisciplinary
experts (see Annex 1 for Study Group composition)
to evaluate the current requirements, and to
provide new insights and recommendations where
applicable. The Study Group was formed following
a call for nominations addressed to several research
organisations in Europe and beyond as well as to
the ESF standing committees on Life, Earth and
Environmental Sciences (LESC), Medical Research
(EMRC), Physical and Engineering Sciences (PESC)
as well as Social Sciences (SCSS) and Humanities
(SCH).
The mandate of the Study Group was to:
“Recommend the level of assurance for the exclusion
of an unintended release of a potential Mars
life form into the Earth’s biosphere for a Mars
Sample Return mission”.
The starting point of this activity was the
requirement used since the late 1990s specifying
that: ‘the probability that a single unsterilised particle
of 0.2 micron diameter or greater is released into the
Earth environment shall be less than 106’.
The value for the maximum particle size was
derived from the NRC-SSB 1999 report ‘Size Limits
of Very Small Microorganisms: Proceedings of a
Workshop’, which declared that 0.25 ± 0,05 μm
was the lower size limit for life as we know it (NRC,
1999). However, the past decade has shown enormous
advances in microbiology, and microbes in
the 0.10–0,15 μm range have been discovered in
various environments. Therefore, the value for the
maximum particle size that could be released into
the Earth’s biosphere is revisited and re-evaluated
in this report. Also, the current level of assurance
of preventing the release of a Mars particle is reconsidered.
To complete its mandate, the Study Group met
on three occasions between June and November
2011 and commissioned the organisation of a workshop
dedicated to risk perception held in January
2012. The outcome and recommendations from the
risk perception workshop (see Annex 2 for details)
were used as direct inputs in the formulation of the
advice contained in this report.
Keywords:
- Correction
- Source
- Cite
- Save
- Machine Reading By IdeaReader
0
References
1
Citations
NaN
KQI