The COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy for robotic missions to Mars: A review of current scientific knowledge and future perspectives

Karen Olsson-Francis¹, Peter T Doran², Vyacheslav Ilyin³, Francois Raulin⁴, Petra Rettberg⁵, Gerhard Kminek⁶, María-Paz Zorzano Mier⁷, Athena Coustenis⁸, Niklas Hedman⁹, Omar Al Shehhi¹⁰, Eleonora Ammannito¹¹, James Bernardini¹², Masaki Fujimoto¹³, Olivier Grasset¹⁴, Frank Groen¹², Alex Hayes¹⁵, Sarah Gallagher¹⁶, Praveen Kumar K¹⁷, Christian Mustin¹⁸, Akiko Nakamura¹⁹, Elaine Seasly¹², Yohey Suzuki¹⁹, Jing Peng²⁰, Olga Prieto-Ballesteros⁷, Silvio Sinibaldi⁶, Kanyan Xu²¹, Maxim Zaitsev²²

Affiliations

¹ AstrobiologyOU, Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK. Electronic address: k.olsson-francis@open.ac.uk.
² Department of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.
³ Institute for Biomedical Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
⁴ Univ Paris Est Cr Univ Paris Est Créteil and Université Paris Cité, CNRS, LISA, F-94010 Créteil, France.
⁵ German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Radiation Biology Department, Research Group Astrobiology, 51147 Cologne, Germany.
⁶ European Space Agency, Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
⁷ Centro deAstrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA, Carretera de Ajalvir km 4, 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain.
⁸ LESIA, Paris Observatory, PSL University, CNRS, Paris University, 92195 Meudon Cedex, France.
⁹ Committee, Policy and Legal Affairs Section, Office for Outer Space Affairs, United Nations Office at Vienna, Austria.
¹⁰ UAESA.
¹¹ Italian Space Agency (ASI), Rome, Italy.
¹² Office of Safety and Mission Assurance, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546, USA.
¹³ Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), Kanagawa, Japan.
¹⁴ Nantes Université, Nantes, France.
¹⁵ Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-6801, USA.
¹⁶ Institute of Earth and Space Exploration, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
¹⁷ Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India.
¹⁸ Centre National des Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France.
¹⁹ Department of Earth and Planetary Science, The University of Tokyo,7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
²⁰ China National Space Administration, Beijing, China.
²¹ Laboratory of Space Microbiology, Shenzhou Space Biotechnology Group, Chinese Academy of Space Technology, Beijing, China.
²² Planetary Physics Dept., Space Research Inst. of Russian Acad. of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.

PMID: 36682826
DOI: 10.1016/j.lssr.2022.12.001

Review

The COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy for robotic missions to Mars: A review of current scientific knowledge and future perspectives

Karen Olsson-Francis et al. Life Sci Space Res (Amst). 2023 Feb.

. 2023 Feb:36:27-35.

doi: 10.1016/j.lssr.2022.12.001. Epub 2022 Dec 14.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ AstrobiologyOU, Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK. Electronic address: k.olsson-francis@open.ac.uk.
² Department of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.
³ Institute for Biomedical Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
⁴ Univ Paris Est Cr Univ Paris Est Créteil and Université Paris Cité, CNRS, LISA, F-94010 Créteil, France.
⁵ German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Radiation Biology Department, Research Group Astrobiology, 51147 Cologne, Germany.
⁶ European Space Agency, Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
⁷ Centro deAstrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA, Carretera de Ajalvir km 4, 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain.
⁸ LESIA, Paris Observatory, PSL University, CNRS, Paris University, 92195 Meudon Cedex, France.
⁹ Committee, Policy and Legal Affairs Section, Office for Outer Space Affairs, United Nations Office at Vienna, Austria.
¹⁰ UAESA.
¹¹ Italian Space Agency (ASI), Rome, Italy.
¹² Office of Safety and Mission Assurance, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546, USA.
¹³ Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), Kanagawa, Japan.
¹⁴ Nantes Université, Nantes, France.
¹⁵ Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-6801, USA.
¹⁶ Institute of Earth and Space Exploration, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
¹⁷ Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India.
¹⁸ Centre National des Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France.
¹⁹ Department of Earth and Planetary Science, The University of Tokyo,7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
²⁰ China National Space Administration, Beijing, China.
²¹ Laboratory of Space Microbiology, Shenzhou Space Biotechnology Group, Chinese Academy of Space Technology, Beijing, China.
²² Planetary Physics Dept., Space Research Inst. of Russian Acad. of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.

PMID: 36682826
DOI: 10.1016/j.lssr.2022.12.001

Abstract

Planetary protection guidance for martian exploration has become a notable point of discussion over the last decade. This is due to increased scientific interest in the habitability of the red planet with updated techniques, missions becoming more attainable by smaller space agencies, and both the private sector and governments engaging in activities to facilitate commercial opportunities and human-crewed missions. The international standards for planetary protection have been developed through consultation with the scientific community and the space agencies by the Committee on Space Research's (COSPAR) Panel on Planetary Protection, which provides guidance for compliance with the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. In 2021, the Panel evaluated recent scientific data and literature regarding the planetary protection requirements for Mars and the implications of this on the guidelines. In this paper, we discuss the COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy for Mars, review the new scientific findings and discuss the next steps required to enable the next generation of robotic missions to Mars.

Keywords: COSPAR Panel on Planetary Protection; Mars; Planetatry Protection.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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The COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy for robotic missions to Mars: A review of current scientific knowledge and future perspectives

Affiliations

The COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy for robotic missions to Mars: A review of current scientific knowledge and future perspectives

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

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