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Project Title:
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Planetary Protection Standards for Icy Bodies in the Outer Solar System
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PIN:
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DEPS-SSB-10-08
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Major Unit:
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Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences
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Sub Unit:
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DEPS Space Studies Board
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RSO:
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Smith, David
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Subject/Focus Area:
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Biology and Life Sciences; Space and Aeronautics
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Project Scope
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An ad-hoc committee will be organized under the auspices of the Space Studies Board to develop and recommend planetary protection standards for future spacecraft missions, including possible landers and subsurface probes, to the icy bodies in the outer solar system (asteroids, satellites, Kuiper Belt objects, and comets) in light of current scientific understanding and ongoing improvements in mission-enabling capabilities and technologies.
Specifically, the committee will consider the following subjects and make recommendations, as appropriate, in a report to NASA:
• The possible factors that usefully could be included in a Coleman-Sagan formulation describing the probability that various types of missions might contaminate with Earth life any liquid water, either naturally occurring or induced by human activities, on or within specific target icy bodies or classes of objects;
• The range of values that can be estimated for the above factors based on current knowledge, as well as an assessment of conservative values for other specific factors that might be provided to missions targeting individual bodies or classes of objects; and
• Scientific investigations that could reduce the uncertainty in the above estimates and assessments, as well as technology developments that would facilitate implementation of planetary protection requirements and/or reduce the overall probability of contamination.
The project is sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The start approximate date for the project is July 2010.
A final report is expected to be released in February 2012.
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Project Duration:
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20 months
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