Planetary Protection Knowledge Gaps and Enabling Science for Human Mars Missions

摘要

In the coming decade, as we prepare for the first mission to Mars with a human crew, we have a continuing
\nobligation to protect the integrity of scientific investigations at Mars. In particular, it is unlikely that the 
\nsearch for life on Mars will be completed by the time the first crew systems arrive at the martian surface. 
\nIndeed, some consider the presence of astronauts to be an essential augmentation to the robotic search for
\nevidence of life on the red planet. 
\nIn addition, the environment of the Earth needs to be protected from the threat posed by the uncontrolled 
\nrelease of a putative martian life form into the terrestrial biosphere. Prevention of such harmful cross-contaminations between Mars and the Earth is the practice of planetary protection. At present, the 
\nknowledge of how to achieve these two goals (prevention of forward contamination from Earth and 
\nbackward contamination from Mars) is well described for robotic systems. In contrast, for human missions 
\nthere are only guidelines (Kminek et al. 2017a) but no engineering requirements, in part, because our 
\nknowledge of Mars (and of how contamination from crewed systems will interact with Mars) is incomplete. 
\nThese gaps in our knowledge (as also described in NASA NID8715.129) need to be addressed through 
\nacquisition of new data during the next decade, if planetary protection measures are to be implemented 
\nsuccessfully for human missions. This paper describes the technical issues and measurements needed.