{"id":3110,"date":"2019-04-25T22:21:57","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T19:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/?p=3110"},"modified":"2019-04-25T22:22:21","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T19:22:21","slug":"new-planetary-protection-board-to-review-guidelines-for-future-solar-system-and-beyond-exploration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/?p=3110","title":{"rendered":"New Planetary Protection Board to Review Guidelines for Future Solar System and Beyond Exploration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Following National Academy of Sciences recommendations, advice from \nthe NASA Advisory Council, and subsequent unanimous agreement from \nNASA\u2019s science leadership, the agency has established an independent \nPlanetary Protection Review Board to review established guidelines for \nplanetary protection and recommend any updates that are required. \nPlanetary protection policies are designed to protect solar system \nbodies from contamination by Earth life, and to protect Earth from \npossible harm from potential biological sources beyond our planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s vital we revisit the planetary protection guidelines put in \nplace in a previous era to ensure our protection standards reflect the \ncurrent and future realities of space exploration,\u201d said Thomas \nZurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA\u2019s Science Mission \nDirectorate. \u201cThis board will not only report directly to me, but \nconduct essential dialogue to prepare for future robotic missions both \nby NASA and also commercial entities, and eventual human footprints on \nMars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Planetary scientist Alan Stern, principal investigator of NASA\u2019s New \nHorizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule, will \nserve as board chair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs we push new boundaries with both robotic and human exploration of\n the solar system, and work toward going where no humans have gone \nbefore, we must be responsible in our exploration,\u201d said Stern, based at\n the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. \u201cI\u2019m looking \nforward to our helping ensure that we have a set of guidelines that help\n enable a new era of civil, commercial, and public-private partnership \nexploration, while safeguarding both life on Earth and environments \nacross the solar system.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board will provide direction to inform future planetary mission \nactivities and will be instrumental in planning for a possible future \nMars sample return mission to retrieve samples from the Red Planet, and \nreturn those samples to Earth for study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planetary protection is important for many reasons, including the \nsearch for life beyond Earth. As one example, if a sample of Martian \nsoil were contaminated with life from Earth, it might be more difficult \nto discern whether the sample also contained biological material from \nMars. And, if a sample of hypothetical microbes from Mars came to Earth,\n it is essential to protect against any adverse effect this could have \nfor life on our planet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In light of the possibility of human exploration of Mars, private \nsector robotic space missions and other future ventures, the newly \nformed board will review and consider recommendations to update \nbiological contamination guidelines that were developed by the Committee\n on Space Research (COSPAR), an international scientific organization.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

COSPAR was first charged with overseeing planetary protection matters\n in 1958, and in 1967 the Outer Space Treaty made avoiding \u201charmful \ncontamination\u201d of celestial bodies and \u201cadverse changes in the \nenvironment of the Earth\u201d a legal requirement for its signatory nations.\n Since then, NASA and other countries\u2019 space agencies have followed \nCOSPAR guidelines. But while there have been updates to the COSPAR \nplanetary protection framework in the interim, recent reviews have \nraised concerns these standards may need updating both to keep up with \nour scientific progress and technological advances, especially \nrecognizing changes in the stakeholder community of planetary \nexploration, and our desire to bring humans to the surface of Mars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NASA received a recommendation from the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) \nto establish a multi-disciplinary task force of experts from industry, \nthe scientific community, and relevant government agencies, to develop \nU.S. policies that properly balance the legitimate need to protect \nagainst the harmful contamination of the Earth or other celestial bodies\n with the scientific, social, and economic benefits of public and \nprivate space missions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After preparation and data gathering activities, beginning late June,\n over the following three months, the board will meet to assess current \nplanetary protection guidelines in the context of the current space \nexploration landscape, and formulate their recommendations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Board members will be selected for their experience in management, \nengineering, science, industry and legal matters relevant to planetary \nprotection. The board will provide Associate Administrator Zurbuchen an \ninterim report with further activities determined following discussions \nwith him and other key NASA stakeholders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/feature\/new-planetary-protection-board-to-review-guidelines-for-future-solar-system-and-beyond<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following National Academy of Sciences recommendations, advice from the NASA Advisory Council, and subsequent unanimous agreement from NASA\u2019s science leadership, the agency has established an independent Planetary Protection Review Board to review established guidelines for planetary protection and recommend any updates that are required. Planetary protection policies are designed to protect solar system bodies from contamination by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3110"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3114,"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110\/revisions\/3114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/energyholding.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}