Bioburden Control Elements of Planetary Protection for the Europa Lander mission concept
Abstract
The Europa Lander mission concept would search for biosignatures, evaluate overall habitability and investigate geophysical properties and dynamics from the surface of Europa. The baseline instrument package would include provisions for imagery, organic and inorganic chemistry, microscopy, and geophysical activity monitoring. These instruments would characterize Europa's geophysical properties and dynamic processes while directly analyzing surface ice samples to identify microscopic features and quantify both inorganic and organic compounds.The Europa Lander Mission would represent a novel challenge for Planetary Protection. COSPAR policy states that Europa missions must demonstrate less than a 1 in 10,000 probability of contamination, where contamination is defined as the introduction of one viable Earth organism into a liquid water body. The Europa Lander mission flight system concept, consisting of four distinct vehicles, magnifies and diversifies the challenge of preventing forward contamination of Europa by Earth organisms. To meet the applicable requirements, the initial Planetary Protection architecture for the Europa Lander mission concept includes a diverse set of bioburden control elements: stringent microbial reduction, cleanroom assembly, a large biobarrier and a terminal sterilization system (TSS). Depending on sensitivity to microbial reduction processes, components and subsystems would be subjected to 6-log microbial reduction, full sterilization treatment, or situated in select locations for end-of-mission incineration by the TSS.Once assembled and integrated into a four-vehicle stack, the upper three vehicles, all of which are planned to contact Europa, would be protected from recontamination by a biobarrier. To further reduce bioburden, vapor hydrogen peroxide would be applied behind the biobarrier after last access. After arrival at Europa, forward contamination from less-stringently treated components would be prevented by activating the TSS either prior to a non-nominal impact or at the end of the approximate 20-day surface sampling mission.In combination, these elements would provide high levels of bioburden control for the Europa Lander mission concept; the current status of this approach and progress towards meeting the contamination probability limit will be presented.Note: This abstract contains predecisional information, for planning and discussion only
- Publication:
-
42nd COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- July 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018cosp...42E.673C