COSPAR Policy
"Although the existence of life elsewhere in the solar system may be unlikely, the conduct of scientific investigations of possible extra-terrestrial life forms, precursors, and remnants must not be jeopardized. In addition, the Earth must be protected from the potential hazard posed by extra-terrestrial matter carried by a spacecraft returning from another planet.”
NASA Recommendation 3.1 (NAS, 2018)
NASA’s process for developing planetary protection policy for sample return missions should include early consultation with mission developers and managers, mission and receiving facility science teams, and microbiologists and include providing a means to use the best available biological and technological knowledge about back contamination and containment.
NASA Recommendation (NAS, 2019)
After considering the body of work ….., the effect of desiccation on the surfaces of the martian moons, ….. the committee recommends that samples returned from the martian moons be designated unrestricted Earth return.
The prevention of back contamination
•Earth environment preservation, in the case of missions returning samples, probes or crews, is directly linked to our biosphere protection and to safety.
•Mars material shall be considered as hazardous until proven otherwise.
•The samples shall be perfectly contained and the hermeticity of the containment system shall be controlled on-board before its release into Earth atmosphere.
•After a safe landing, recovery and transportation for scientific investigations, the samples shall prior be stored in a quarantine facility of class 4 which is the most stringent category.
•During this quarantine period of time, experiments and testing protocols used for life detection and biohazard testing must be defined and built in order to state with the higher possible degree of confidence (Debus, 2006).
Extra-terrestrial sample properties preservation
•If sample preservation is not ensured, this may cause contamination or change in sample material properties, resulting in some characteristics being affected. This may induce false conclusions concerning the presence of life or biohazard.
•Firstly, a false positive can occur if the extra-terrestrial samples are inadvertently contaminated (organically or biologically) by insufficiently sterilised analysis and test equipment. Any false positive will erroneously influence the Earth planetary protection policy against incoming samples from that extra-terrestrial source.
•Secondly, a false negative can occur, if in the test sample, the hazard has disappeared due to poor preservation or handling. Remaining samples could possibly then by distributed to unsuspecting recipients. Additionally, any mission to the extra-terrestrial source planet may have taken insufficient organic and biohazard protection measures.
(Debus, 2006).
"Although the existence of life elsewhere in the solar system may be unlikely, the conduct of scientific investigations of possible extra-terrestrial life forms, precursors, and remnants must not be jeopardized. In addition, the Earth must be protected from the potential hazard posed by extra-terrestrial matter carried by a spacecraft returning from another planet.”
NASA Recommendation 3.1 (NAS, 2018)
NASA’s process for developing planetary protection policy for sample return missions should include early consultation with mission developers and managers, mission and receiving facility science teams, and microbiologists and include providing a means to use the best available biological and technological knowledge about back contamination and containment.
NASA Recommendation (NAS, 2019)
After considering the body of work ….., the effect of desiccation on the surfaces of the martian moons, ….. the committee recommends that samples returned from the martian moons be designated unrestricted Earth return.
The prevention of back contamination
•Earth environment preservation, in the case of missions returning samples, probes or crews, is directly linked to our biosphere protection and to safety.
•Mars material shall be considered as hazardous until proven otherwise.
•The samples shall be perfectly contained and the hermeticity of the containment system shall be controlled on-board before its release into Earth atmosphere.
•After a safe landing, recovery and transportation for scientific investigations, the samples shall prior be stored in a quarantine facility of class 4 which is the most stringent category.
•During this quarantine period of time, experiments and testing protocols used for life detection and biohazard testing must be defined and built in order to state with the higher possible degree of confidence (Debus, 2006).
Extra-terrestrial sample properties preservation
•If sample preservation is not ensured, this may cause contamination or change in sample material properties, resulting in some characteristics being affected. This may induce false conclusions concerning the presence of life or biohazard.
•Firstly, a false positive can occur if the extra-terrestrial samples are inadvertently contaminated (organically or biologically) by insufficiently sterilised analysis and test equipment. Any false positive will erroneously influence the Earth planetary protection policy against incoming samples from that extra-terrestrial source.
•Secondly, a false negative can occur, if in the test sample, the hazard has disappeared due to poor preservation or handling. Remaining samples could possibly then by distributed to unsuspecting recipients. Additionally, any mission to the extra-terrestrial source planet may have taken insufficient organic and biohazard protection measures.
(Debus, 2006).