Planetary protection and human missions to Mars

Kurzfassung

Human missions to Mars are the goal of several space agencies and private entities. Humans need and will always be accompanied by microbes. However, it remains important to protect the integrity of scientific investigations on Mars, as well as to protect the Earth' s biosphere from any potential harmful effects from returned martian material. COSPAR has developed planetary protection implementation guidelines for robotic missions to Mars, but for manned missions only general statements are included in the current planetary protection policy. In a serious of COSPAR NASA workshops and other meetings knowledge gaps in the areas of natural transport and survival of terrestrial microbial contamination at Mars, the technoIogy and operation of spacecraft systems for contamination control and microbial monitoring of spacecraft and crew health have been identified.