Report Series: Committee on Planetary Protection Evaluation of Bioburden Requirements for Mars Missions (2021) / Chapter Skim
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4 Risk Management and Post-Landing Approaches to Planetary Protection
4 Risk Management and Post-Landing Approaches to Planetary Protection
Pages 39-47
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From page 39... ...
This chapter discusses those limits in flexibility and outlines an alternate approach that might be wellsuited to achieving planetary protection objectives when some missions go forward with relaxed bioburden requirements. LACK OF FLEXIBILITY WITH THE CURRENT PLANETARY PROTECTION POLICY The planetary protection requirements specify spore counts measured at gross levels before launch.
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From page 40... ...
The Planetary Protection Officer has the discretion to negotiate credit for bioburden reductions during entry and descent. It does not consider natural bioburden reductions that can occur after landing when microorganisms are exposed to the hostile Mars environment (e.g., UVC, low water activity, etc.)
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From page 41... ...
Together, these advantages should increasingly benefit more complex missions now being contemplated, including scientific deep drilling, in situ resource utilization, emplacement of the infrastructure for human exploration, and eventually human missions. NPR 8000.4B and the NASA Risk Management Handbook provide detailed guidance on the use of two complementary processes: Risk Informed Decision Making (RIDM)
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From page 42... ...
The committee provides a simplified example of such a risk management approach, which NASA and other stakeholders could develop into a more robust framework for planetary protection purposes for Mars missions and, potentially, for missions to other solar system bodies. An Example of a Planetary Protection Risk Management Framework A simplified Risk Management process includes the following ordered steps: 1.
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From page 43... ...
SOURCE: Adapted from NPR 8000.4B and the NASA Risk Management Handbook, NASA/SP-2011 3422. TABLE 4.1 Example Risk Statements Bridge Bridge Bridge # Language CONDITION Language DEVIATION Language CONSEQUENCE Risk related to the landing site after transport from Earth a sufficient number of Earth potential confusion or current organisms and/or future experiment results 1a related to prebiotic evolution or extinct life the vehicle there is a a sufficient number of live Earth potential confusion or current Given nominally leading 1b possibility organisms remain liable for a and/or future experiment results that lands in the to of sufficient time related to extant life landing region a sufficient number of live Earth sustained replication and organisms remain viable for a propagation of Earth organisms, or 1c sufficient time and in a favorable harm to native organisms environment Risk related to a new region after transport on the surface 2a transport of a sufficient number of potential confusion of current Earth organisms to a new region and/or future experiment results related to prebiotic evolution or extinct life 2b transport of a sufficient number of potential confusion of current live Earth organisms to a new and/or future experiments results the vehicle there is a region, and survival of these related to extant life Given nominally leading possibility organisms during transport and for that lands in the to of a sufficient time thereafter landing region 2c transport of a sufficient number of sustained replication and live Earth organisms to a new propagation of Earth organisms, or region, and survival of these harm to native organisms organisms during transport and for a sufficient time thereafter in a favorable environment 43
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From page 44... ...
is assigned to each risk before the application of any risk mitigations. For example, the risk level of a lander causing harmful contamination to a special region would be evaluated before any bioburden reduction methods are applied.
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From page 45... ...
For future missions, mitigations might also include in situ bioburden reduction, or designing to take advantage of the natural effects of natural UVC or cosmic radiation at Mars. Once mitigations are identified that reduce the residual risk to an acceptable level, CRM can be used to track risks throughout program development, implementation, and operations to assure that risk rankings remain contained at acceptable low levels.
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From page 46... ...
IN SITU BIOBURDEN REDUCTION In both the scientific and commercial communities, there is increased interest in developing missions to conduct subsurface operations. Today, such missions are categorized as Category IVc and subject to the most stringent cleaning requirements if they target caves and voids, the subsurface below 5 m, deposits of water ice, or other potential Special Regions.
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From page 47... ...
Given the possibility that a lander mission could discover evidence for biologically relevant features or activity that was not anticipated when the mission's planetary protection plan was developed and approved, there is a need to update planetary protection policy to incorporate planetary protection in the planning and execution of daily Mars surface operations for both scientific and commercial missions. However, current planetary protection policies do not include any provisions for assessing or adjusting surface operations to react to observations after landing.
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