Biological assessment of Ariane 5 fairing

United Nations Space Treaties [10 and 11] require the preservation of planets and of Earth from contamination. All nations part to these Treaties shall take measures to prevent forward and backward contamination during missions exploring our solar system. As observer for the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, the COSPAR (Committee of Space Research) defines and handles the applicable policy and proposes recommendations to Space Agencies [COSPAR Planetary Protection Panel, Planetary Protection Policy accepted by the COSPAR Council and Bureau, 20 October 2002, amended 24 March 2005. http://www.cosparhq.org/scistr/PPPolicy.htm.]. The goal is to protect celestial bodies from terrestrial biological contamination as well as to protect the Earth environment from an eventual biohazard which may be carried by extraterrestrial samples or by space systems returning to Earth. According to the applicable specifications, including in our case the French requirements [CNES, System Safety. Planetary Protection Requirements. Normative referential CNES RNC-CNES-R-14, CNES Toulouse, ed. 4, 04 October 2002.], the prevention of forward contamination is accomplished by reducing the bioburden on space hardware to acceptable, prescribed levels, including in some instances system sterilization, assembling and integrating the appropriate spacecraft systems in cleanrooms of appropriate biological cleanliness, avoiding or controlling any recontamination risk, and limiting the probability impact of space systems. In order to prepare for future exploration missions [Debus, A., Planetary protection: organization requirements and needs for future planetary exploration missions, ESA conference publication SP-543, pp 103–114, 2003.], and in particular for missions to Mars requiring to control the spacecraft bioburden, a test program has been developed to evaluate the biological contamination under the fairing of the Ariane 5 launcher.     

Planetary protection issues related to human missions to Mars

In accordance with the United Nations Outer Space Treaties [United Nations, Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, UN doc A/RES/34/68, resolution 38/68 of December 1979], currently maintained and promulgated by the Committee on Space Research [COSPAR Planetary Protection Panel, Planetary Protection Policy accepted by the COSPAR Council and Bureau, 20 October 2002, amended 24 March 2005, http://www.cosparhq.org/scistr/PPPolicy.htm], missions exploring the Solar system must meet planetary protection requirements. Planetary protection aims to protect celestial bodies from terrestrial contamination and to protect the Earth environment from potential biological contamination carried by returned samples or space systems that have been in contact with an extraterrestrial environment. From an exobiology perspective, Mars is one of the major targets, and several missions are currently in operation, in transit, or scheduled for its exploration. Some of them include payloads dedicated to the detection of life or traces of life. The next step, over the coming years, will be to return samples from Mars to Earth, with a view to increasing our knowledge in preparation for the first manned mission that is likely to take place within the next few decades. Robotic missions to Mars shall meet planetary protection specifications, currently well documented, and planetary protection programs are implemented in a very reliable manner given that experience in the field spans some 40 years. With regards to sample return missions, a set of stringent requirements has been approved by COSPAR [COSPAR Planetary Protection Panel, Planetary Protection Policy accepted by the COSPAR Council and Bureau, 20 October 2002, amended 24 March 2005, http://www.cosparhq.org/scistr/PPPolicy.htm], and technical challenges must now be overcome in order to preserve the Earth’s biosphere from any eventual contamination risk. In addition to the human dimension of the mission, sending astronauts to Mars will entail meeting all these constraints. Astronauts present huge sources of contamination for Mars and are also potential carriers of biohazardous material on their return to Earth. If they were to have the misfortune of being contaminated, they themselves would become a biohazard, and, as a consequence, in addition to the technical constraints, human and ethical considerations must also be taken into account.     

Planetary environment protection ID no: F3.3-M.1.05 implications for the development of a network of surface stations on Mars.

The European Space Agency's studies of a Comet Nucleus Sample Return mission (ROSETTA) as its Planetary Cornerstone in its long-term programme 'Horizon 2000' and the Marsnet mission, a potential contribution of the Agency to an international network of surface stations on Mars, has revived the interest in the present state of Planetary Protection requirements. MARSNET was one of the four candidate missions selected in April 1991 for further Design Feasibility (Phase A) Studies. Furthermore, of all space agencies participating in planetary exploration activities only the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration had a well established Planetary Protection Policy on Viking and other relevant planetary missions, whereas ESA is considering the feasibility and potential impact of a planetary protection policy on its Marsnet mission, within the framework of a tight budgetary envelope applicable to ESA's medium (M) class missions. This paper will discuss in general terms the impact of Planetary Protection measures, its implications for Marsnet and the issues arising from this for the implementation of the mission in ESA's scientific programme.     

火星无人探测与行星保护

行星保护是每一个开展深空探测的国家都要面对的问题,火星是太阳系里最可能存在地外生命的星球之一,也是行星保护的重点关注对象,在我国火星探测即将正式启动之际,对标国际上行星保护的政策、标准、技术和管理措施,对我国未来在火星探测中满足国际上行星保护的要求至关重要。主要回顾了行星保护的历史,国外在火星探测历史上行星保护正向防护所采取的措施,以及现代科学技术发展对行星保护正向防护相关技术的影响,并对我国未来火星及深空探测活动中应该采取的行星保护正向污染防护技术提出了建议。     

载人火星探测的行星保护

行星保护是影响载人火星探索任务的重要问题之一。载人探测的行星保护包括3个方面,即防止来源于地球的微生物污染目标星球的正向污染防护、防止外来生物对地球的潜在危害的逆向污染防护,以及确保航天员的健康和安全。国际宇航界已经开始针对载人火星探测的行星保护制定政策法规和开展技术研讨。本文介绍了行星保护的定义和法理依据,简要回顾了美国国家航空航天局在“阿波罗登月”中的行星保护措施,并对未来载人火星探测中的主要污染物、污染途径以及污染防护策略进行了初步探讨。     

Planetary Protection Policy (U.S.A.).

Through existing treaty obligations of the United States, NASA is committed to exploring space while avoiding biological contamination of the planets, and to the protection of the Earth against harm from materials returned from space. Because of the similarities between Mars and Earth, plans for the exploration of Mars evoke discussions of these Planetary Protection issues. US Planetary Protection Policy will be focused on the preservation of these goals in an arena that will change with the growth of scientific knowledge about the martian environment. Early opportunities to gain the appropriate data will be used to guide later policy implementation. Because human presence on Mars will result in the end of Earth's separation from the martian environment, it is expected that precursor robotic missions will address critical planetary protection concerns before humans arrive.     

Planetary protection issues and the future exploration of Mars.

A primary scientific theme for the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) is the search for life, extant or extinct, on Mars. Because of this, concerns about Planetary Protection (PP), the prevention of biological cross-contamination between Earth and other planets during solar system exploration missions, have arisen. A recent workshop assessed the necessity for, and impact of, PP requirements on the unmanned and human missions to Mars comprising the SEI. The following ground-rules were adopted: 1) information needed for assessing PP issues must be obtained during the unmanned precursor mission phase prior to human landings; 2) returned Mars samples will be considered biologically hazardous until proven otherwise; 3) deposition of microbes on Mars and exposure of the crew to Martian materials are inevitable when humans land; and, 4) human landings are unlikely until it is demonstrated that there is no harmful effect of Martian materials on terrestrial life forms. These ground-rules dictated the development of a conservative PP strategy for precursor missions. Key features of the proposed strategy include: 1) for prevention of forward contamination, all orbiters will follow Mars Observer PP procedures for assembly, trajectory, and lifetime. All landers will follow Viking PP procedures for assembly, microbial load reduction, and bioshield; and, 2) for prevention of back contamination, all sample return missions will have PP requirements which include fail-safe sample sealing, breaking contact chain with the Martian surface, and containment and quarantine analysis in an Earth-based lab. In addition to deliberating on scientific and technical issues, the workshop made several recommendations for dealing with forward and back contamination concerns from non-scientific perspectives.     

Planetary protection implementation on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission

In August 2005 NASA launched a large orbiting science observatory, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), for what is scheduled to be a 5.4-year mission. High resolution imaging of the surface is a principal goal of the mission. One consequence of this goal however is the need for a low science orbit. Unfortunately this orbit fails the required 20-year orbit life set in NASA Planetary Protection (PP) requirements [NASA. Planetary protection provisions for robotic extraterrestrial missions, NASA procedural requirements NPR 8020.12C, NASA HQ, Washington, DC, April 2005.]. So rather than sacrifice the science goals of the mission by raising the science orbit, the MRO Project chose to be the first orbiter to pursue the bio-burden reduction approach.     

Estimation and assessment of Mars contamination.

Since the beginning of the exploration of Mars, more than fourty years ago, thirty-six missions have been launched, including fifty-nine different space systems such as fly-by spacecraft, orbiters, cruise modules, landing or penetrating systems. Taking into account failures at launch, about three missions out of four have been successfully sent toward the Red Planet. The fact today is that Mars orbital environment includes orbiters and perhaps debris, and that its atmosphere and its surface include terrestrial compounds and dormant microorganisms. Coming from the UN Outer Space Treaty [United Nations Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (the "Outer Space Treaty") referenced 610 UNTS 205 - resolution 2222(XXI) of December 1966] and according to the COSPAR planetary protection policy recommendations [COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy (20 October 2002), accepted by the Council and Bureau, as moved for adoption by SC F and PPP, prepared by the COSPAR/IAU Workshop on Planetary Protection, 4/02 with updates 10/0, 2002], Mars environment has to be preserved so as not to jeopardize the scientific investigations, and the level of terrestrial material brought on and around Mars theoretically has to comply with this policy. It is useful to evaluate what and how many materials, compounds and microorganisms are on Mars, to list what is in orbit and to identify where all these items are. Considering assumptions about materials, spores and gas location and dispersion on Mars, average contamination levels can be estimated. It is clear now that as long as missions are sent to other extraterrestrial bodies, it is not possible to keep them perfectly clean. Mars is one of the most concerned body, and the large number of missions achieved, on-going and planned now raise the question about its possible contamination, not necessarily from a biological point of view, but with respect to all types of contamination. Answering this question, will help to assess the potential effects of such contamination on scientific results and will address concerns relative to any ethical considerations about the contamination of other planets.     

Planetary protection issues of private endeavours in research,exploration, and human access to space: An environmental economics approach to forward contamination

In light of the rapidly growing New Space Economy, the landscape of space exploration and development activities will certainly become much more complicated year by year. Relevant commercial space actors have already emerged, pushing the boundaries of entrepreneurial space ventures beyond the Earth-oriented upstream and downstream market segments and opening up the path towards the novel segments of space exploration, space resources utilization, and space research. Planetary protection is usually defined as a set of guidelines concerning the avoidance of bidirectional biological material exchange between the Earth and other celestial bodies. Recent success stories of established and new-entrant NewSpace actors, although posing no realistic planetary protection threat at present, clearly indicate that serious work needs to be done in order for the relevant guidelines to keep up with the rapid advances of the technology development cycles that occur within NewSpace companies. This need may become even more urgent, as space entrepreneurs acquire and develop the resources and competencies to target the currently underserved market segments of space research, exploration, and utilization. As of now, these capabilities were maintained solely by public space agencies; thus, all planetary protection priorities, strategies, and responsibilities were discussed, agreed-upon, and delegated for implementation among national and international working groups of public stakeholders. Although top-down regulations can be effective in controlling the quality and conformity of the deliverables of private subcontractors to public contractors, international planetary protection frameworks might need to evolve even beyond such unmet public-private interaction and partnership models. For this reason, this study did not focus on the legal and political issues of mandating NewSpace actors to adhere to planetary protection guidelines; rather, drawing from the field of sustainable development on Earth, an environmental economics approach was followed, with the goal of viewing the relationship between planetary protection and private space exploration and development as another “tragedy of the commons” problem that must be settled accordingly. After the problem’s framing, i.e. the conceptual presentation and synthesis of four extraterrestrial non-excludable goods, the initial approach of their total economic value, and the negative externalities of their exploitation, a discussion of the forward contamination mitigation costs was conducted. Drawing from the literature and using examples from both the terrestrial and aerospace sectors, a pre-emptive move was suggested: the establishment of a global industry consortium for the pre-competitive collaboration in forward contamination mitigation technologies, centered on an international planetary protection analogue program and its respective testbed facility.     

Planetary protection issues for sample return missions.

Sample return missions from a comet nucleus and the Mars surface are currently under study in the US, USSR, and by ESA. Guidance on Planetary Protection (PP) issues is needed by mission scientists and engineers for incorporation into various elements of mission design studies. Although COSPAR has promulgated international policy on PP for various classes of solar system exploration missions, the applicability of this policy to sample return missions, in particular, remains vague. In this paper, we propose a set of implementing procedures to maintain the scientific integrity of these samples. We also propose that these same procedures will automatically assure that COSPAR-derived PP guidelines are achieved. The recommendations discussed here are the first step toward development of official COSPAR implementation requirements for sample return missions.     

Measuring the economic benefits of a national planetary protection policy to regulate future private space activities between Earth and Mars: Results of a contingent valuation survey in Greece

The emergence of private space actors may soon enable the growth of the novel market segments of space research and exploration, space resources utilization, and human access to space. The interdisciplinary field of Planetary Protection has to keep up with these advances. Planetary Protection is defined as a set of guidelines that aim to prevent the forward contamination of celestial bodies with biological material from Earth and the backward contamination of the terrestrial biosphere with extraterrestrial biological material. As space entrepreneurs acquire and develop the resources and competencies for commercial access to space, significant questions are expected to be raised in the future with respect to potential forward and backward contamination issues, particularly with respect to activities between Earth and Mars. Although such private activities do not seem to pose a serious Planetary Protection threat at the moment, certain preparatory steps need to be taken in order to prudently inform the relevant policy-making procedures. This work describes the application of the Contingent Valuation Method, a useful tool of the environmental economics discipline, with the aim of demonstrating a novel approach to estimate the economic valuation of the external benefits of preventing forward and backward contamination between Earth and Mars. Particularly, via a survey specifically developed for this purpose, a set of questions are used to elicit the perceived economic value that respondents place on the prevention of forward and backward contamination; the survey is administered to a national probability sample in Greece, and the generated data is processed through statistical analysis. The Contingent Valuation Method is a popular and well-established stated preference valuation technique; these techniques are often the more suitable choice for ex-ante valuations of future changes, and are currently the only known approach to capture all the aspects of the economic value of non-market goods. Through an initial proof-of-concept in Greece, the goal of this work is to provide useful insights on the expected external benefits of a national Planetary Protection policy to regulate future private space activities between Earth and Mars, and to encourage a larger-scale application of this tool in other countries around the world.     

Europa planetary protection for Juno Jupiter Orbiter

NASA’s Juno mission launched in 2011 and will explore Jupiter and its near environment starting in 2016. Planetary protection requirements for avoiding the contamination of Europa have been taken into account in the Juno mission design. In particular Juno’s polar orbit, which enables scientific investigations of parts of Jupiter’s environment never before visited, also greatly assist avoiding close flybys of Europa and the other Galilean satellites.     

Planetary protection considerations for MarsNet and Mars sample return missions.

The ESA MarsNet mission proposal consists most probably of a trio of Mars landers. These landers each contain a variety of scientific equipment. The network of stations demands for a definition of its planetary protection requirements. With respect to the MarsNet mission only forward contamination problems will be considered. Future involvement of European efforts in planetary exploration including sample returns will also raise the problem of back contamination. A tradeoff study for the overall scientific benefit with respect to the approximative cost is necessary. Planetary protection guide-lines will be proposed by an interdisciplinary and international board of experts working in the fields of both biology and planetary science. These guide-lines will have to be flexible in order to be modified with respect to new research results, e.g. on adaptation of microorganisms to extreme (space) conditions. Experiments on the survival of microorganisms at conditions of simulated Mars surface and subsurface will have to be conducted in order to obtain a baseline data collection as a reference standard for future guide-lines.     

U.S. planetary protection program: Implementation highlights

The implementation of planetary protection in the United States space program has reflected the trend in policy from an absolute to a probabilistic prohibition of the contamination of the celestial bodies of the solar system. The early emphasis on spacecraft sterilization (e.g. Ranger) was replaced by the imposition of contamination control procedures on later missions such as Pioneer, Viking, and Voyager. Similarly, analytical and laboratory techniques were developed to demonstrate compliance with probabilistic requirements. Microbial burden reduction methods that are not hazardous for spacecraft reliability supplanted the abstract concept of sterilization. The United States implementation of planetary protection has been completely successful. In an exploration program that has included Mercury, Venus, Mars, the Jovian system, and the Saturnian system, there have been no accidental impacts or detection of false positives (terrestrial microbes). Further, the contamination control and microbial burden procedures have proved beneficial to spacecraft systems and on-board science instruments. We review in this paper the implementation of planetary protection procedures by the Pioneer (10 and 11), Viking and Voyager projects.     

Proposal for a multiple-asteroid-flyby mission with sample return

Asteroid exploration provides a new approach to study the formation of the solar system and the planetary evolution. Choosing a suitable target and designing of feasible profile for asteroid mission are challenging due to constraints such as scientific value and technical feasibility. This paper investigates a feasible mission scenario among the potential candidates of multiple flybys and sample return missions. First, a group of potential candidates are selected by considering the physical properties and accessibility of asteroids, for the sample return missions. Second, the feasible mission scenarios for multiple flybys and sample return missions to various spectral-type asteroids are investigated. We present the optimized design of preliminary interplanetary transfer trajectory for two kinds of missions. One is the single sample return mission to asteroids with various spectral types. The other is the multiple flybys and sample return mission to several asteroids. In order to find the optimal profiles, the planetary swing-by technique and Differential Evolution algorithm are used.     

Critical issues in connection with human missions to Mars: protection of and from the Martian environment.

Human missions to Mars are planned to happen within this century. Activities associated therewith will interact with the environment of Mars in two reciprocal ways: (i) the mission needs to be protected from the natural environmental elements that can be harmful to human health, the equipment or to their operations; (ii) the specific natural environment of Mars should be protected so that it retains its value for scientific and other purposes. The following environmental elements need to be considered in order to protect humans and the equipment on the planetary surface: (i) cosmic ionizing radiation, (ii) solar particle events; (iii) solar ultraviolet radiation; (iv) reduced gravity; (v) thin atmosphere; (vi) extremes in temperatures and their fluctuations; and (vii) surface dust. In order to protect the planetary environment, the requirements for planetary protection as adopted by COSPAR for lander missions need to be revised in view of human presence on the planet. Landers carrying equipment for exobiological investigations require special consideration to reduce contamination by terrestrial microorganisms and organic matter to the greatest feasible extent. Records of human activities on the planet's surface should be maintained in sufficient detail that future scientific experimenters can determine whether environmental modifications have resulted from explorations.     

Wireless sensor networks for planetary exploration: Experimental assessment of communication and deployment

Planetary surface exploration is an appealing application of wireless sensor networks that has been investigated in recent years by the space community, including the European Space Agency. The idea is to deploy a number of self-organizing sensor nodes forming a wireless networked architecture to provide a distributed instrument for the study and exploration of a planetary body. To explore this concept, ESA has funded the research project RF Wireless for Planetary Exploration (RF-WIPE), carried out by GMV, SUPSI and UPM. The purpose of RF-WIPE was to simulate and prototype a wireless sensor network in order to assess the potential and limitations of the technology for the purposes of planetary exploration.     

A proposed new policy for planetary protection

In order to control contamination of planets by terrestrial microorganisms and organic constituents, U.S. planetary missions have been governed by a planetary protection (or planetary quarantine) policy which has changed little since 1972. This policy has recently been reviewed in light of new information obtained by planetary exploration during the past decade and because of changes to, or uncertainties in, some parameters used in the existing quantitative approach. On the basis of this analysis, a new planetary protection policy, with the following key features, is proposed: deemphasizing the use of mathematical models and quantitative analyses; establishing requirements for target planet/mission type (i.e., orbiter, lander, etc.) combinations; considering sample return missions a separate category; simplifying documentation; and imposing implementing procedures (i.e., trajectory biasing, cleanroom assembly, spacecraft sterilization, etc.) by exception, i.e., only if the planet/mission combination warrants such controls. Interpretation of the new policy for missions like Galileo, Mars Surface Sample Return, Saturn Orbiter with Twin Probes, and missions to comets are considered. In general, the new policy proposes elimination of all but documentation requirements for most planetary missions and simplification of the remaining compliance procedures.     

Revised planetary protection policy for solar system exploration

In order to control contamination of planets by terrestrial microorganisms and organic constituents, U.S. planetary missions have been governed by a planetary protection (or planetary quarantine) policy which has changed little since 1972. This policy has recently been reviewed in light of new information obtained from planetary exploration during the past decade and because of changes to, or uncertainties in, some parameters used in the existing quantitative approach. On the basis of this analysis, a revised planetary protection policy with the following key features is proposed: deemphasizing the use of mathematical models and quantitative analyses; establishing requirements for target planet/mission type (i.e., orbiter, lander, etc.) combinations; considering sample return missions a separate category; simplifying documentation; and imposing implementing procedures (i.e., trajectory biasing, cleanroom assembly, spacecraft sterilization, etc.) by exception, i.e., only if the planet/mission combination warrants such controls.