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By Michael Meltzer | THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY BLANK by Michael Meltzer NASA SP-2011- 4234 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Meltzer, Michael. When biospheres collide : a history of NASA’s planetary protection programs / by Michael Meltzer. p. cm. -- (NASA SP ; 2011-4234) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Space pollution. 2. Space environment. 3. Outer space-- Exploration--Environmental aspects. 4. Environmental protection-- Moral and ethical aspects. I. Title. TL1499.M45 2010 363.739--dc22 2008005759 CONTENTS List of Figures vii List of Tables xi Preface xiii Foreword xv Acknowledgments xix Chapter 1: Why We Must Protect Planetary Environments 1 Chapter 2: In the Beginning: The Need for Planetary Protection Is Recognized 15 Chapter 3: Developing Effective Planetary Protection Approaches 77 Chapter 4: Back Contamination: The Apollo Approach 113 Chapter 5: Planetary Protection for Mars: The Viking Experience 247 Chapter 6: Small Bodies of the Solar System 301 Chapter 7: Return to Mars 359 Chapter 8: Do We Have the Right To Contaminate? The Ethical and Legal Aspects of Planetary Protection 433 Chapter 9: Conclusion 457 Appendices 461 A. Detailed Planetary Protection Requirements 461 B. The Impact of “Faster, Better, Cheaper” on Planetary Protection Priorities 471 C. Biohazard Identification: The Synergism Between Bioterror Prevention and Planetary Protection Research 474 D. Committees, Organizations, and Facilities Important to the Development of Planetary Protection 476 E. Timeline of Important Planetary Protection–Related Events 481 F. Planetary Protection Approaches Used on Various Missions 484 Acronyms and Abbreviations 493 The NASA History Series 497 Index 515 v THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY BLANK LIST OF FIGURES Image Page Description 2.1 17 Joshua Lederberg in a laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, October 1958. (National Library of Medicine BBBAAW) 2.2 17 Nobel Laureate Melvin Calvin. (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory image 96502090) 2.3 29 USSR scientist Anatoli A. Blagonravov, who helped to launch Sputnik and worked to establish cooperation in space between the United States and the USSR. 2.4 35 Carl Sagan with a model of the Viking Mars lander in Death Valley, California. 2.5 41 Abe Silverstein, NASA Director of Space Flight Programs and an advocate of spacecraft sterilization. (Glenn Research Center image 174771) 3.1 89 Estimating the quantity of contamination reaching Mars. 3.2 95 Typical probability distribution of viable organ- ism (VO) quantities reaching and surviving on the Martian surface. 4.1 212 Flotation collar attached to the Columbia Command Module. (S69-21698) 4.2 214 The Apollo 11 crew, wearing biological isolation gar- ments (BIGs), leave the helicopter that carried them from the Command Module and walk across the deck vii When Biospheres Collide of the USS Hornet toward the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF). (S69-40753) 4.3 216 President Nixon welcomes the Apollo 11 astronauts aboard the USS Hornet. (S69-21365) 4.4 217 Apollo 11 Command Module and its flotation collar hoisted aboard the USS Hornet. (S69-22185) 4.5 218 The first Apollo 11 sample return container is unloaded at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL). (S69-39996) 4.6 220 LRL functional areas. (S67-00696) 4.7 220 Sample operations area details. (S66-08384) 4.8 223 The first lunar sample photographed in detail at LRL. (S69-45025) 4.9 224 Lunar material in a sieve from the bulk sample container being examined in an LRL glove box. (S69-40749) 4.10 232 Radiation counting laboratory. (S67-00689) 4.11 239 USS Hornet, prime recovery vessel for Apollo 12, moves toward the Command Module. (S69-22897) 5.1 249 Elements of the Viking Lander Capsule (VLC). 5.2 250 The Viking lander. 5.3 251 Viking spacecraft under assembly at Martin Marietta Aerospace near Denver, Colorado. (GPN-2000-001630) viii List of Figures 5.4 252 Joshua Lederberg with a model of the Viking spacecraft and launch vehicle. (National Library of Medicine and NASA file) 5.5 267 The Viking bioshield. 5.6 269 The Viking gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GCMS). 5.7 272 Sterilization activity sequence. 6.1 320 A cutaway view of the possible internal structure of Europa. (PIA01082) 6.2 345 An artist’s concept of Stardust sample return capsule (SRC) parachuting down to Earth, bringing samples of comet particles and interstellar dust. (PIA03184) 6.3 346 The Stardust sample return capsule was transported by helicopter from its landing site at the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range. (PIA03671) 6.4 346 Mission staff prepare to remove an aerogel par- ticle collection grid from the Stardust SRC. (KSC-98PC-1870) 6.5 347 A closeup view of a cometary impact into aerogel. (JSC2006-E-01008) 6.6 347 An artist’s concept of the Genesis spacecraft in its collection mode, opened up to catch and store sam- ples of solar wind particles. 7.1 391 Assembly of the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO). (GPN-2000-000498) 7.2 399 Phoenix spacecraft assembly, with Lockheed Martin Space Systems technicians working on the science deck of NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander. (PIA09203) ix When Biospheres Collide 7.3 408 Mars Global Surveyor evidence of recent liquid water: gully landforms possibly caused by geologically recent seepage and runoff. (PIA01034) 7.4 409 Gullies eroded into the wall of a meteor impact crater. (PIA01035) 7.5 415 Scientists have speculated that the tube-like struc- tures in these electron microscope images may be microscopic fossils of primitive, bacteria-like organ- isms that lived on Mars more than 3.6 billion years ago. (PIA00284) 7.6 416 An artist’s concept of the launch of a Martian sample back toward Earth. (PIA05488) x LIST OF TABLES Table Page Description 3.1 84 Suballocations by nation—probability limits on contaminating a target planet during the period of biological interest. 4.1 139 Membership of the Interagency Committee on Back Contamination. 4.2 143 Candidate facilities for lunar crew quarantine. 4.3 160 Lunar Receiving Laboratory conceptual studies and site evaluations. 5.1 264 A comparison of nickel-cadmium (NiCd) and silver- zinc (AgZn) batteries. 7.1 366 Summary of target body/mission type categories. 7.2 377 Planetary protection activities during different Mars Observer mission phases. 7.3 378 Mars Observer impact probability estimates and requirements. xi When Biospheres Collide Reference Note Many footnotes in this book cite Internet-based sources. Inevitably, some pages on the World Wide Web do not last forever. If you are trying to locate a source whose URL no longer works, you may contact the NASA History Program Office at NASA Headquarters for help (e-mail [email protected]). Their Historical Reference Collection contains hard copies of many of the online sources cited in this book, and even if they do not have the one you are seeking, they may be able to assist you in locating it. xii PREFACE Col. Ross: “Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?” S. Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.” Col. Ross: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.” S. Holmes: “That was the curious incident.” —The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1893) Significant challenges abound in the astrobiological study of the solar system, similar to those faced by Sherlock Holmes in another con- text. In the search for extraterrestrial life, a negative result is nearly impossible to obtain, much less interpret. We are bathed in Earth organisms, which makes finding our own kind of life palpably easy and detecting indigenous life on other worlds much more difficult. We are not exploring the solar system to discover life that we have brought with us from home, and we are aware that Earth organisms (read: invaders) could very well erase traces of truly extraterrestrial life. Likewise, we don’t know what would happen if alien organisms were introduced into Earth’s biosphere. Would a close relationship (and a benign one) be obvious to all, or will Martian life be so alien as to be unnoticed by both Earth organisms and human defenses? We really have no data to address these questions, and considerate scientists fear conducting those experiments without proper safeguards. After all, this is the only biosphere we currently know—and we do love it! xiii When Biospheres Collide With this volume, Michael Meltzer details the fascinating history of our attempts at planetary protection and those who have worked to pro- tect Earth from otherworldly organisms, while safeguarding other worlds from the all-too-pervasive life on Earth. Such a history is particularly important at this time, since it provides a point of departure for under- standing the field as we undertake further explorations. Meltzer’s work will help us face what may well be a crucial topic in the future of the science of life and the future of humans in space. John D. Rummel, Senior Scientist for Astrobiology NASA Science Mission Directorate, Planetary Sciences Division xiv FOREWORD The question of whether there is life on other planetary bod- ies became directly relevant to astronomy in the Renaissance, when Galileo made his observations confirming that the wandering “planets” might actually be objects similar to our own Earth, traveling around the Sun. (Previously, this question had been the purview of philoso- phers. In the fourth century BC, Metrodorus of Chios neatly summed up the attitude of his mentor, Epicurus, toward extraterrestrial life: “To consider the Earth as the only populated world in infinite space is as absurd as to assert that in an entire field of millet, only one grain will grow.”) In the 19th century, Schiaparelli’s description of “canali” (channels) on Mars encouraged Percival Lowell to depict canals, which might have been built by a dying civilization on a nearly dead planet.
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