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Pages 4-8

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From page 4...
... PLANETARY PROTECTION POLICY FOR SMALL SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES Both NASA and COSPAR policies provide for assigning each solar system exploration mission to a specific planetary protection category. For missions that are not intended to return samples to Earth, these 1 In planetary protection policy, the goal of preventing forward contamination focuses exclusively on avoiding interference with searches for evidence of life or the origin of life, and it does not encompass other esthetic, environmental, or ethical issues relating to contamination of solar system bodies.
From page 5...
... The current policy places missions to undifferentiated, metamorphosed asteroids in Category I, for which there are no planetary protection requirements beyond identifying the target of the mission. NASA assigns missions to other asteroids and to Kuiper Belt objects to Category II, for which there are only information requirements for planetary protection.
From page 6...
... 11 Planetary Protection Independent Review Board (PPIRB) , 2019, NASA Planetary Protection Independent Review Board (PPIRB)
From page 7...
... Planetary protection assessment for missions to Pluto and other Kuiper Belt object dwarf planets will no doubt need to be considered once such a mission is prioritized; the committee anticipates that any such mission will be a scientific mission and thus scientific requirements will likely outweigh planetary protection cleanliness requirements. Finally, the committee did not consider either missions to planetary satellites or planetary defense missions designed to deflect or destroy an asteroid that might become a hazard to Earth.
From page 8...
... 2 Many asteroid families may have dispersed since formation and are thus difficult to identify in the current era. 3 1 IAU Minor Planet Center, 2022, "Running Tallies," http://www.minorplanetcenter.net.


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