Planetary Protection

Planetary Protection refers to all measures in space travel that prevent terrestrial life forms, such as B. microorganisms or biomolecules , with space missions reach and contaminate other planets , moons , asteroids and comets . Also with sample retrieval missions it should be ensured that possibly existing extraterrestrial life forms do not unintentionally reach the earth and get into the biosphere .

A distinction is made between forward contamination (earthly living beings contaminate the alien celestial body) and backward contamination (reverse / back contamination, exaterrestrial life forms contaminate the earthly biosphere).

COSPAR distinguishes between five mission categories (I – V).

Article IX of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty mentions planetary contamination and appropriate requirements for space contracting parties.

Investigations in 2012 showed that extremophile and extremotolerant microorganisms could be detected even in clean rooms that had been specially treated with regard to cleanliness and sterility . The ESA maintains the DSMZ a collection of microorganisms isolated from clean rooms and surfaces of spacecraft.

See also

• Extraterrestrial life
• Planetary Defense

literature

• COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy . Committee on Space Research , 2002 (PDF)
• J. Andy Spry: Contamination Control and Planetary Protection. in: Yoseph Bar-Cohen, et al .: Drilling in extreme environments - penetration and sampling on earth and other planets. WILEY-VCH, Weinheim 2009, ISBN 978-3-527-40852-8 ; Pp. 707-739.

Web links

• Planetary Protection at NASA's Office of Safety and Mission Assurance
• Earth microbes on the moon . NASA / Marshall Space Flight Center - Space Sciences Laboratory, September 2, 1998
• Planetary protection . ESA
• The Goals, Rationales, and Definition of Planetary Protection National Academies of Sciences, nap.edu

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Planetary protection is the term given to the policies and practices that protect other solar system bodies (eg, planets, moons, asteroids, and comets) from earth life and that protect the earth from life that may be brought back from other solar system bodies. "in: Peter D. Ward: Life as we do not know it-the NASA search for (and synthesis of) alien life. Viking, New York 2005, ISBN 0-670-03458-4 , p. 242.
2. ↑ Christine Moissl-Eichinger: Biocontamination in space travel: Planetary Protection . Retrieved October 3, 2019
3. ↑ Planetary Protection for Sample Return Missions lpi.usra.edu, pdf, accessed on May 28, 2011
4. ↑ Planetary Protection for Sample Return Missions - Summary ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). sci2.esa.int, PDF, accessed on May 28, 2011
5. ^ Iain Gilmour, et al .: An introduction to astrobiology. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge 2004, ISBN 0-521-83736-7 , chapter: 3.6 Planetary protection, pp. 119-122.
6. ↑ John D. Rummel: Planetary protection overview-the role of COSPAR in international missions. Planetary Protection Mission Categories, p. 17, oosa.unvienna.org, pdf accessed on May 10, 2012
7. ↑ Gerda Horneck, et al .: Astrobiology Explatory Missions and Planetary Protection Requirements. Pp. 353-397, in: G. Horneck, et al .: Complete course in astrobiology. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2007, ISBN 978-3-527-40660-9 ( limited preview in Google book search), accessed on December 3, 2012
8. ↑ Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies , Article IX. FAA.gov, accessed May 11, 2012
9. ↑ Christine Moissl-Eichinger: Extremophiles in spacecraft assembly clean rooms. in: Helga Stan-Lotter, et al .: Adaption of microbial life to environmental extremes. Springer, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-211-99690-4 , pp. 231-261.
10. ^ Rare New Microbe Found in Two Distant Clean Rooms jpl.nasa.gov, accessed November 7, 2013
11. ↑ A collection of potential blind space flight passengers derstandard.at
12. ↑ European Space Agency Microbial Strain Collection dsmz.de, accessed on March 29, 2018