Report of the COSPAR mars special regions colloquium

In this paper we present the findings of a COSPAR Mars Special Regions Colloquium held in Rome in 2007. We review and discuss the definition of Mars Special Regions, the physical parameters used to define Mars Special Regions, and physical features on Mars that can be interpreted as Mars Special Regions. We conclude that any region experiencing temperatures > −25 °C for a few hours a year and a water activity > 0.5 can potentially allow the replication of terrestrial microorganisms. Physical features on Mars that can be interpreted as meeting these conditions constitute a Mars Special Region. Based on current knowledge of the martian environment and the conservative nature of planetary protection, the following features constitute Mars Special regions: Gullies and bright streaks associated with them, pasted-on terrain, deep subsurface, dark streaks only on a case-by-case basis, others to be determined. The parameter definition and the associated list of physical features should be re-evaluated on a regular basis.     

Issues in planetary protection: policy, protocol and implementation

Planetary protection is NASA's term for the practice of protecting solar system bodies from Earth life while protecting Earth from life that may be brought back from other solar system bodies. Spacefaring nations will soon begin retrieving samples from Mars and other solar system bodies. For these samples, planetary protection is in order, and measures are already in place to prevent the forward contamination of Mars and other bodies by Earth microbes and the backward contamination of Earth by possible extraterrestrial life. A major goal of planetary protection controls on forward contamination is to preserve the planetary record of natural processes by preventing human-caused microbial introductions.     

Toward a global space exploration program: A stepping stone approach

In response to the growing importance of space exploration in future planning, the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) Panel on Exploration (PEX) was chartered to provide independent scientific advice to support the development of exploration programs and to safeguard the potential scientific assets of solar system objects. In this report, PEX elaborates a stepwise approach to achieve a new level of space cooperation that can help develop world-wide capabilities in space science and exploration and support a transition that will lead to a global space exploration program. The proposed stepping stones are intended to transcend cross-cultural barriers, leading to the development of technical interfaces and shared legal frameworks and fostering coordination and cooperation on a broad front. Input for this report was drawn from expertise provided by COSPAR Associates within the international community and via the contacts they maintain in various scientific entities. The report provides a summary and synthesis of science roadmaps and recommendations for planetary exploration produced by many national and international working groups, aiming to encourage and exploit synergies among similar programs. While science and technology represent the core and, often, the drivers for space exploration, several other disciplines and their stakeholders (Earth science, space law, and others) should be more robustly interlinked and involved than they have been to date. The report argues that a shared vision is crucial to this linkage, and to providing a direction that enables new countries and stakeholders to join and engage in the overall space exploration effort. Building a basic space technology capacity within a wider range of countries, ensuring new actors in space act responsibly, and increasing public awareness and engagement are concrete steps that can provide a broader interest in space exploration, worldwide, and build a solid basis for program sustainability. By engaging developing countries and emerging space nations in an international space exploration program, it will be possible to create a critical bottom-up support structure to support program continuity in the development and execution of future global space exploration frameworks. With a focus on stepping stones, COSPAR can support a global space exploration program that stimulates scientists in current and emerging spacefaring nations, and that will invite those in developing countries to participate—pursuing research aimed at answering outstanding questions about the origins and evolution of our solar system and life on Earth (and possibly elsewhere). COSPAR, in cooperation with national and international science foundations and space-related organizations, will advocate this stepping stone approach to enhance future cooperative space exploration efforts.     

THEMIS Operations

THEMIS—a five-spacecraft constellation to study magnetospheric events leading to auroral outbursts—launched on February 17, 2007. All aspects of operations are conducted at the Mission Operations Center at the University of California at Berkeley. Activities of the multi-mission operations team include mission and science operations, flight dynamics and ground station operations. Communications with the constellation are primarily established via the Berkeley Ground Station, while NASA’s Ground Network provides secondary pass coverage. In addition, NASA’s Space Network supports maneuver operations near perigee. Following a successful launch campaign, the operations team performed on-orbit probe bus and instrument check-out and commissioning tasks, and placed the constellation initially into a coast phase orbit configuration to control orbit dispersion and conduct initial science operations during the summer of 2007. Mission orbit placement was completed in the fall of 2007, in time for the first winter observing season in the Earth’s magnetospheric tail. Over the course of the first 18 months of on-orbit constellation operations, procedures for instrument configuration, science data acquisition and navigation were refined, and software systems were enhanced. Overall, the implemented ground systems at the Mission Operations Center proved to be very successful and completely adequate to support reliable and efficient constellation operations. A high degree of systems automation is employed to support lights-out operations during off-hours.