Planetary Protection Review Report Released
NASA’s Planetary Protection Review Addresses Changing Reality of Space Exploration
“NASA released a report Friday with recommendations from the Planetary Protection Independent Review Board (PPIRB) the agency established in response to a recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report and a recommendation from the NASA Advisory Council. With NASA, international, and commercial entities planning bold missions to explore our solar system and return samples to Earth, the context for planetary protection is rapidly changing. NASA established the PPIRB to conduct a thorough review of the agency’s policies. Planetary protection establishes guidelines for missions to other solar system bodies so they are not harmfully contaminated for scientific purposes by Earth biology and Earth, in turn, is protected from harmful contamination from space. The board’s report assesses a rapidly changing environment where more samples from other solar system bodies will be returned to Earth, commercial and international entities are discussing new kinds of solar system missions, and NASA’s Artemis program is planning human missions to the Moon and eventually to Mars.””
Full report: NASA Response to Planetary Protection Independent Review Board Recommendations
We will leave microbes wherever we go. If we go to #Mars. If microbes get outside the suit they will only live for seconds. We want to be good stewards but we do not want to be constrained as to what we do there. – @jimbridenstine #astrobiology
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) October 15, 2019
– NASA’s New Planetary Protection Board
– Planetary Protection Classification of Sample-Return Missions from the Martian Moons
– Report: Review and Assessment of Planetary Protection Policy Development Processes
– More planetary Protection postings
I’ll write the report for them:
People = bad!*
*We don’t even know how bad! But we’re sure: bad!
Done.
Pretty much. If these guys had had their way in the 60s, Apollo simply never would have happened.
Zubrin goes absolutely nuts on this issue and he’s right.
I expect it will be used to provide guidance for private firms in exploring space. This is important given the prospect of increased abilities for private groups for space exploration. Likely Mars, Europa, Titan and Enceladus will be placed off limits for private missions not in partnership with NASA, but the rest of the Solar System, including the Moon, will be open for business. A reasonable compromise given the current knowledge state.
Except tardigrades, right?
Little do the PP people know that in 200 years we can harvest mutated tardigrades like Ripper from Luna for Spore Drives ?
Wonder if this factored in SpaceX’s plans to pursue Luna.
Best way to read this is first, the Executive Summary, which gives some context to what is being discussed; then the Major Recommendations. The Major Findings can be read as if they are a major finding to the Independent Review Board (IRB) but are not really news to us. A lot of common sense recommendations, but also a distinct preference to have NASA the regulatory body (although it specifically states they are not a regulatory body, it goes on to say they could be used as one by withholding funds). But more than one reference to private space entities and the desirability to encourage these, both in the 1958 NASA act and the 2010 act. Some good recommendations to zone the moon and mars as to the level of protection desired (or possibly required by a regulatory body).