Thanks for the links, Alex - interesting stuff, even though the format is (as Nick noted) a pain.

I guess this has been discussed in the past, but: if there is such great concern about quarantining and sterilizing the samples, what consideration is being given to cleaning the return vessel? Given that bacteria apparently survived quite well for several years on NASA hardware on the moon, if we are going to worry about the inside, don't we need to be concerned about the outside, too? I didn't see anything in the report on this matter.

Regarding sterilization techniques: though they recommend high levels of treatment (such as double the gamma ray dose that would be effective for killing any known Earthly organisms), what is the basis for assuming that these methods would be sufficient for any possible Martian organisms? If they exist, they have evolved in a very harsh environment and likely have extreme self-protection mechanisms. (Radiodurans maximus?) I suppose there have to be some assumptions made, but if we're going to be paranoid... maybe they should go to the ISS for initial examination.