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Executive Summary
Pages 1-3

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From page 1...
... The committee also found that confusion extends into the scientific community with regards to the planetary protection requirements for missions to small bodies. Members of the community were found to believe that planetary protection measures for missions to small bodies were in place to prevent contamination whereas Category II missions do not have any such requirements.
From page 2...
... This would allow for the most recent science information to be taken into account. Finding 6: Under current NASA and COSPAR planetary protection guidelines, Category II missions require only a minimal level of documented information, primarily target and impact/landing site.
From page 3...
... Nevertheless, given the importance of some classes of relatively primitive, volatile-rich, and organic-bearing small bodies to studies of prebiotic chemistry and the sparsity of current knowledge about them, the committee sees no reason to reduce the current categorizations (from Category II to Category I) for missions to such objects until such time as scientific knowledge changes.


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