MSR Science Planning Group 2 (MSPG2): Science & Curation Considerations for a Mars Sample Return (MSR) Sample Receiving Facility

Planning is currently underway to deliver martian samples to be collected by the rover Perseverance to Earth for scientific analysis. Once these samples arrive on Earth they would need to be processed under strict protocols of biocontainment and contamination control. This would notionally happen in a Sample Receiving Facility (SRF), which would need to accommodate receipt of the returned spacecraft; extraction and opening of the sealed sample container; extracting the samples from the sample tubes and; a set of evaluations and analyses of the samples. There is a strong desire to perform as many analyses as possible in uncontained external research laboratories, but this would only be possible once samples are deemed safe for release, either through sterilization or safety assessment. For this reason, an SRF would need to be designed to accommodate analytical activities that could NOT reasonably be done in outside laboratories because they are time-sensitive, sterilization-sensitive, are necessary for the sample safety assessment protocol (SSAP) tests, and because they are necessary parts of the initial sample characterization curation process that would allow subsamples to be effectively allocated for investigation. Thus, the SRF would need to provide a unique environment consisting of both BSL-4 equivalent containment AND a very high level of contamination control, that could accommodate: Receipt of the returned spacecraft, presumably in some sort of a sealed container De-integration (i.e., disassembly) and assessment of the returned system, beginning from the spacecraft exterior and ending with accessing and isolating all Mars material (gas, dust, regolith, and rock) Initial sample characterization and other needed curation activities leading to development of a sample catalog sufficient to support sample allocation Science investigations necessary to complete the Sample Safety Assessment Protocol Certain science investigations that are both time- and sterilization-sensitive A managed transition to post-SRF activities, including analysis of samples (either sterilized or not) outside biocontainment, and the transfer of some or all samples to one or more uncontained curation facilities.