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Statement of Task

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will appoint the Committee on Planetary Protection (CoPP) to operate as a long-term ad hoc committee. The disciplinary scope of CoPP includes the study of those aspects of planetary environments, the life sciences, spacecraft engineering and technology, and science policy relevant to the control of biological cross-contamination arising from the robotic spacecraft missions and the human exploration and utilization of solar system bodies. CoPP will have two primary tasks:

1. To monitor progress in implementing the planetary protection guidelines associated with priority missions and programs identified in the planetary science decadal survey—Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022—and in successor planetary science decadal surveys, and other relevant reports issued by the National Academies; and
2. To serve as a source of information and advice on those measures undertaken by robotic spacecraft and human exploration missions to protect the biological and environmental integrity of extraterrestrial bodies for future scientific studies and the means to preserve the integrity of Earth’s biosphere when spacecraft return potentially hazardous extraterrestrial materials to Earth.

The committee will carry out its charge at its in-person and virtual meetings by gathering evidence from experts, deliberating, and, when necessary, by preparing short assessment reports detailing progress in areas relating to NASA’s planetary protection guidelines or new scientific and technical developments. Such reports may include findings and discussion of key activities undertaken by NASA as well as the status of its actions that relate to the state of implementation of priority missions and programs.

For other advisory activities that require a more in-depth review than is possible through the normal operation of the CoPP, Space Studies Board, Board on Life Sciences, Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, and NASA will negotiate a task for a separate ad hoc committee, taking advantage, as appropriate, of the expertise in the CoPP.

Through its regular meetings, the CoPP will also serve the secondary functions of:

1. Providing an independent, authoritative forum for the scientific community, the federal government, international space agencies, relevant private-sector entities and organizations, and the interested public to identify and discuss emerging issues in the scientific, technical, and engineering aspects of planetary protection policies and guidelines;
2. Identifying and prioritizing necessary research and development activities required to advance the development of planetary protection guidelines designed to ensure that the exploration and utilization of extraterrestrial environments is conducted responsibly; and
3. Providing a forum for interactions with the International Science Council’s Committee on Space Research and other national and international organizations through the addition of international participants when appropriate and in coordination with the SSB.

The CoPP shall write a report that identifies criteria for determining locations or regions on Mars that are potentially suitable for missions of less restrictive bioburden than the current requirements for

Category IV. The report shall also illustrate the use of those criteria by identifying some potentially acceptable locations that meet those criteria and are suitable for reduced bioburden criteria. Additionally, the report shall consider the appropriateness of mission activities that occur beneath the Martian surface in these locations and how deep such mission activities should be allowed.

The CoPP shall determine whether the following criteria are necessary and sufficient to determine if a location on Mars is appropriate for missions with lower bioburden requirements than the current Category IV and provide methods a mission could use to show it meets the criteria. If the following criteria are not sufficient, the CoPP shall provide those that are deemed necessary.

Criteria might include:

• Temperatures at the landing site and locations of mission activities are below −25°C, or water activity is less than 0.5 (Note: water activity = water vapor pressure of a solution/vapor pressure of pure water),
• Mission activities will go no deeper than a certain distance below the surface,
• Landed spacecraft are not capable of melting the regolith, and
• Proposed landing and/or mission activity sites do not contain geomorphological characteristics of flowing water, such as recurring slope lineae, etc.

Methods to show that the above criteria are met might include:

• Observational data from orbiters, landers, rovers, and Earth-based observation;
• Modeling based on the most up-to-date knowledge of the Martian environment and its processes.

In determining criteria for locations on Mars, the CoPP shall also consider whether mission activities need to be constrained to an area of a specific diameter, including off-nominal operation margins.

Finally, the CoPP shall briefly comment on whether these locations may be suitable for an eventual human exploration mission. While this report should primarily focus on robotic missions, NASA would like to know the CoPP’s views on whether these criteria may be useful (although likely not sufficient) when considering how human missions can be carried out without large-scale biological contamination of Mars.

The committee must consider the views of the broad community of stakeholders, including Mars and astrobiological scientists, government agencies dealing with spaceflight and exploration, and the aerospace industry, including emerging commercial entities.