Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to PS You Ran From The Technical Issues Again

re: Here is The Technical Issue Again, and again and again and again
BD — (archived)

Here's something technical for you:

Adv. Space Res. Vol. 30, No. 6, pp. 1593-1600, 2002

MARTIAN METEORITES DO NOT ELIMINATE THE NEED FOR BACK CONTAMINATION PRECAUTIONS ON SAMPLE RETURN MISSIONS

Benton C. Clark

Lockheed Martin Astronautics, POB 179, MS 5-8000, Denver, CO 80201, USA

ABSTRACT
The phenomenon of natural transport of material from the surface of Mars to the surface of planet Earth,
in the form of martian meteorites, cannot be used as justification to relax or abolish plans and procedures
for quarantine and strict sample containment for future Mars sample return missions (MSR). Biosphere
upsets, ecological disasters, and species extinctions have been far too numerous and their causes too
poorly understood to rule out occasional possible contributions from exogenous biological invaders. In
addition, in today's large, highly intertwined global civilizations, even small perturbations to public
health, ecological stability, economic balances, or perceived threat of any of these could eclipse the public
support that will be needed for space exploration and sample return programs with responsible planetary
protection measures.

BD

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