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Spry JA, Siegel B, Bakermans C, Beaty DW, Bell MS, Benardini JN, Bonaccorsi R, Castro-Wallace SL, Coil DA, Coustenis A, Doran PT, Fenton L, Fidler DP, Glass B, Hoffman SJ, Karouia F, Levine JS, Lupisella ML, Martin-Torres J, Mogul R, Olsson-Francis K, Ortega-Ugalde S, Patel MR, Pearce DA, Race MS, Regberg AB, Rettberg P, Rummel JD, Sato KY, Schuerger AC, Sefton-Nash E, Sharkey M, Singh NK, Sinibaldi S, Stabekis P, Stoker CR, Venkateswaran KJ, Zimmerman RR, Zorzano-Mier MP. Planetary Protection Knowledge Gap Closure Enabling Crewed Missions to Mars. ASTROBIOLOGY 2024; 24:230-274. [PMID: 38507695 DOI: 10.1089/ast.2023.0092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/22/2024]
Abstract
As focus for exploration of Mars transitions from current robotic explorers to development of crewed missions, it remains important to protect the integrity of scientific investigations at Mars, as well as protect the Earth's biosphere from any potential harmful effects from returned martian material. This is the discipline of planetary protection, and the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) maintains the consensus international policy and guidelines on how this is implemented. Based on National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space Agency (ESA) studies that began in 2001, COSPAR adopted principles and guidelines for human missions to Mars in 2008. At that point, it was clear that to move from those qualitative provisions, a great deal of work and interaction with spacecraft designers would be necessary to generate meaningful quantitative recommendations that could embody the intent of the Outer Space Treaty (Article IX) in the design of such missions. Beginning in 2016, COSPAR then sponsored a multiyear interdisciplinary meeting series to address planetary protection "knowledge gaps" (KGs) with the intent of adapting and extending the current robotic mission-focused Planetary Protection Policy to support the design and implementation of crewed and hybrid exploration missions. This article describes the outcome of the interdisciplinary COSPAR meeting series, to describe and address these KGs, as well as identify potential paths to gap closure. It includes the background scientific basis for each topic area and knowledge updates since the meeting series ended. In particular, credible solutions for KG closure are described for the three topic areas of (1) microbial monitoring of spacecraft and crew health; (2) natural transport (and survival) of terrestrial microbial contamination at Mars, and (3) the technology and operation of spacecraft systems for contamination control. The article includes a KG data table on these topic areas, which is intended to be a point of departure for making future progress in developing an end-to-end planetary protection requirements implementation solution for a crewed mission to Mars. Overall, the workshop series has provided evidence of the feasibility of planetary protection implementation for a crewed Mars mission, given (1) the establishment of needed zoning, emission, transport, and survival parameters for terrestrial biological contamination and (2) the creation of an accepted risk-based compliance approach for adoption by spacefaring actors including national space agencies and commercial/nongovernment organizations.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Corien Bakermans
- Department of Biology, Penn. State University (Altoona), Altoona, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - David W Beaty
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
| | | | | | - Rosalba Bonaccorsi
- SETI Institute, Mountain View, California, USA
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, USA
| | | | - David A Coil
- School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA
| | | | - Peter T Doran
- Department of Geology & Geophysics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
| | - Lori Fenton
- SETI Institute, Mountain View, California, USA
| | - David P Fidler
- Council on Foreign Relations, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
| | - Brian Glass
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, USA
| | | | - Fathi Karouia
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, USA
| | - Joel S Levine
- College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
| | | | - Javier Martin-Torres
- School of Geoscience, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
- Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra (CSIC-UGR), Armilla, Spain
| | - Rakesh Mogul
- California Polytechnic (Pomona), Pomona, California, USA
| | - Karen Olsson-Francis
- School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
| | | | - Manish R Patel
- School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
| | - David A Pearce
- Department of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | | | | | | | - John D Rummel
- Friday Harbor Associates LLC, Friday Harbor, Washington, USA
| | | | - Andrew C Schuerger
- Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, Merritt Island, Florida, USA
| | | | - Matthew Sharkey
- US Department of Health & Human Services, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
| | - Nitin K Singh
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
| | | | | | - Carol R Stoker
- NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, USA
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Trubl G, Stedman KM, Bywaters KF, Matula EE, Sommers P, Roux S, Merino N, Yin J, Kaelber JT, Avila-Herrera A, Johnson PA, Johnson JC, Borges S, Weber PK, Pett-Ridge J, Boston PJ. Astrovirology: how viruses enhance our understanding of life in the Universe. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ASTROBIOLOGY 2023; 22:247-271. [PMID: 38046673 PMCID: PMC10691837 DOI: 10.1017/s1473550423000058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/05/2023]
Abstract
Viruses are the most numerically abundant biological entities on Earth. As ubiquitous replicators of molecular information and agents of community change, viruses have potent effects on the life on Earth, and may play a critical role in human spaceflight, for life-detection missions to other planetary bodies and planetary protection. However, major knowledge gaps constrain our understanding of the Earth's virosphere: (1) the role viruses play in biogeochemical cycles, (2) the origin(s) of viruses and (3) the involvement of viruses in the evolution, distribution and persistence of life. As viruses are the only replicators that span all known types of nucleic acids, an expanded experimental and theoretical toolbox built for Earth's viruses will be pivotal for detecting and understanding life on Earth and beyond. Only by filling in these knowledge and technical gaps we will obtain an inclusive assessment of how to distinguish and detect life on other planetary surfaces. Meanwhile, space exploration requires life-support systems for the needs of humans, plants and their microbial inhabitants. Viral effects on microbes and plants are essential for Earth's biosphere and human health, but virus-host interactions in spaceflight are poorly understood. Viral relationships with their hosts respond to environmental changes in complex ways which are difficult to predict by extrapolating from Earth-based proxies. These relationships should be studied in space to fully understand how spaceflight will modulate viral impacts on human health and life-support systems, including microbiomes. In this review, we address key questions that must be examined to incorporate viruses into Earth system models, life-support systems and life detection. Tackling these questions will benefit our efforts to develop planetary protection protocols and further our understanding of viruses in astrobiology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gareth Trubl
- Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA
| | - Kenneth M. Stedman
- Center for Life in Extreme Environments, Department of Biology, Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA
| | | | | | | | - Simon Roux
- DOE Joint Genome Institute, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Nancy Merino
- Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA
| | - John Yin
- Chemical and Biological Engineering, Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Jason T. Kaelber
- Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Aram Avila-Herrera
- Computing Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA
| | - Peter Anto Johnson
- Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | | | | | - Peter K. Weber
- Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA
| | - Jennifer Pett-Ridge
- Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA
- Life & Environmental Sciences Department, University of California Merced, Merced, CA, USA
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