And that someone seems to be this lady, with this most BAMF job responsibility ever:
“These are ongoing conversations,” said Catharine A. Conley, NASA’s planetary protection officer, who coordinates the efforts to minimize the chances of life inadvertently crossing the solar system.
Isn't this nearly impossible in the long (although here I mean really, really long) term? Think of trying to minimize the chances of some flu strain in one continent from getting to the other. I mean, once humans start going here and there, what do you do, do you keep everything in containment (exhaled gases, excrements, every form of waste)?
The only way you could keep human biota 100% contained is if the humans never interacted with anything outside the welded-shut steel sphere they inhabited - in which case, why bother bringing them to Mars?
Well, shorter times delays on teleop are a useful thing. Humans can do that just as well from orbit but if you've gone all that way then the gravity on Mars might be enough of a health benefit to make it worth while landing.
No, I got the key word. How the heck is that decision made? And by whom? Elon Musk gets ready to put a lander on Mars and there's a NASA office now that must give permission?
Sorry, still not making sense.
"Office of planetary probe sterilization" would be much more descriptive. Otherwise we're taking on a helluva lot more authority and prerogative than we probably should.
I'm puzzled about why the existence of guidelines for contamination of other planets would be surprising.
Note, the concept of "Planetary Protection" also applies to contamination in the reverse direction for sample-return missions, which are very much expected to be part of Mars 2020.
I didn't know this before looking, but it turns out there are UN agreements, and something called the "Outer Space Treaty" to which the U.S. is a signatory (1967). This treaty, in essence, prohibits "harmful contamination" of other planets. There is a body of scientists (a panel within COSPAR) which deliberates on contamination and issues guidelines in a timely way. ESA also has a policy. So there do seem to be players here that are larger than Elon Musk.
But these agreements are subject to revision and negotiation as more becomes known. Presumably something will be worked out as the reality comes nearer.
"Presumably something will be worked out as the reality comes nearer."
One would hope so. I must point out that private space travel was entirely out of the question with NASA for many years. It's only been very recently that the idea has started to catch on -- and it's not universally lauded across the agency. Gotta wonder what kind of obstacles we're currently setting up (perhaps without fully realizing it) for anything beyond LEO.
"Strong interest exists among various countries and private industries to send humans to Mars, both for short-term exploration and long-term colonization." (and on for 3 dense pages).
So, private ventures are part of their deliberations.
[Sec. 8, end]
"It will be impossible for all human-associated processes and operations to be conducted within entirely closed systems, so protocols need to be established so (1) human missions to Mars will not contaminate Special Regions nor be contaminated by materials (or possibly organisms) from them and (2) human activities on Mars will avoid converting Non-Special Regions to Special Regions and thus help control the spread of terrestrial microorganisms on Mars."
*
The basic strategy is to identify and avoid "Special Regions".
Since all current private industry space efforts are still organized with NASA, I imagine this part of NASA is involved with efforts such as SpaceX as well.
“These are ongoing conversations,” said Catharine A. Conley, NASA’s planetary protection officer, who coordinates the efforts to minimize the chances of life inadvertently crossing the solar system.