Planetary protection: Elements for cost minimization

Abstract

In line with the UN Outer Space Treaty (article IX of the Outer Space Treaty—London/Washington January 27, 1967) [United Nations Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (the “Outer Space Treaty”) referenced 610 UNTS 205—resolution 2222(XXI) of December 1966 [1]] and with COSPAR recommendations, for ethical, safety and scientific reasons, exploration of the solar system needs to comply with planetary protection constraints in order to avoid extraterrestrial bodies contamination, particularly biological contamination by terrestrial microorganisms. It is also required to protect Earth from an eventual contamination carried by return systems or samples. The search for life in extraterrestrial samples, in situ or in the frame of sample return missions, must be conducted in order to state with the maximum possible confidence, because the discovery or the non-discovery of life in sample has a direct impact on updations of planetary protection specifications for future missions. This last requirement imposes consequently also for implementation in order to preserve extra terrestrial sample properties, protecting also indirectly exobiological science. These constraints impose to set up unusual requirements for project teams involved in such solar system exploration missions, requirements based on hardware sterilization, sterile integration, organic cleanliness, microbiological and cleanliness control, the use of high-reliability system in order to avoid crashes, the definition of specific trajectories and their control, recontamination prevention, etc. Implementation of such requirements induces costs, difficult to estimate, but which can be important depending on the solar system target and the mission definition (fly-by, orbiter or lander). The cost impact of a planetary protection program could be important if some basic rules are not taken into account enough early and consequently, upon past experience, some recommendations can be proposed here in order to manage properly such programs and to minimize their cost.