[FPSPACE] Preventing the Forward Contamination of Mars

[LARRY KLAES]

Preventing the Forward Contamination of Mars

Committee on Preventing the Forward Contamination of Mars, National Research 
Council

166 pages, 8.5 x 11, 2006

Recent spacecraft and robotic probes to Mars have yielded data that are 
changing our understanding significantly about the possibility of existing 
or past life on that planet. Coupled with advances in biology and 
life-detection techniques, these developments place increasing importance on 
the need to protect Mars from contamination by Earth-borne organisms. To 
help with this effort, NASA requested that the NRC examine existing 
planetary protection measures for Mars and recommend changes and further 
research to improve such measures.

This report discusses policies, requirements, and techniques to protect Mars 
from organisms originating on Earth that could interfere with scientific 
investigations. It provides recommendations on cleanliness and biological 
burden levels of Mars-bound spacecraft, methods to reach those levels, and 
research to reduce uncertainties in preventing forward contamination of 
Mars.

http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11381.html