COSPAR SSAP Working Group Report
Abstract
Life in samples from Mars may represent a potential source of extraterrestrial biological contamination for the Earth. In line with article IX of the UN Space Treaty, a range of measures and regulations are employed to prevent undesirable consequence for the terrestrial biosphere. These measures and regulations are described in the COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy and guide compliance with the UN Space Treaty. One key element of these regulations is to conduct a timely safety assessment of any unsterilized material from Mars once the mission has landed on Earth. The first step to develop a safety assessment protocol started under the leadership of NASA, with contribution from CNES, in 2001 with a series of workshops that lead to a Draft Test Protocol. One of the recommendations of this earlier work was to periodically review and update the protocol taking into account new scientific findings. To update the protocol, NASA and ESA in coordination with COSPAR, organised a life detection conference and workshop in 2012 to discuss the latest concepts and methods to search for life and to identify relevant elements for a safety assessment. The main conclusions of the life detection conference (Allwood et al., 2013) and subsequent workshop (Kminek et al., 2014) are: - Employing a hypothesis driven approach in the development of life detection investigation strategies and measurements for science (null hypothesis) and planetary protection (positive hypothesis) provides a sound framework for the problem - The same types of scientific measurements would inform the science and planetary protection elements - A Planetary Protection Test Protocol should be data driven, i.e., responsive to the results of the individual or combined measurements - A clear decision making framework, with well identified decision points is necessary to ensure the Earth safety aspect of planetary protection The workshop identified also analytical methods and a sequence of analysis to support the search for signatures of life in the samples and to inform the sample safety assessment. With an increased interest and planning activities underway to prepare a MSR campaign the need to produce an updated version for such a protocol is evident. This is reflected in one of the recommendations of iMars Phase II (Haltigin et al., 2017): "A Planetary Protection Protocol should be produced as soon as it is feasible by an international working group under the authority of COSPAR or other international body." COSPAR has acted on this recommendation in setting up an international working group to formulate a sample safety assessment protocol. The mandate of the SSAP Working Group is to develop a protocol to assess if there are indications of martian life, extant or extinct, in any martian material and spacecraft hardware exposed to martian material and if this would constitute a biological hazard to the terrestrial biosphere, while maintaining the scientific integrity of the overall material from Mars to the maximum extend possible. This presentation will report the status of the SSAP.
- Publication:
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43rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 28 January - 4 February
- Pub Date:
- January 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021cosp...43E2256K