Categories
The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) translates these provisions into recommendations. Recommendations are tailored to the type of space mission—from planetary flybys to probe landings—and celestial body explored. COSPAR categorizes the missions into 5 groups:
- Category I: Any mission to the Sun, Mercury, other locations not of interest for studying prebiotic chemistry or the origin and evolution of life.
- Category II: Any mission to the Earth's Moon, Venus, comets, Jupiter, Pluto/Charon, Kuiper Belt Objects, other locations of interest for studying prebiotic chemistry and the origin of life but for which there is an insignificant probability of contamination with Earth life.
- Category III: Flyby and orbiter missions to locations with the potential to host life and for which there is a possibility of contamination by Earth life; e.g., Mars, Europa, Titan or Enceladus.
- Category IV: Lander or probe missions to locations with the potential to host life and for which there is a possibility of contamination by Earth life; e.g., Mars, Europa, Titan or Enceladus.
- Category V: Any earth return mission. Missions returning samples from locations with the potential to support life are considered 'Restricted Earth Return' and returned samples must be contained at levels more stringent than Biosafety level 4. Samples from locations judged unlikely to support life are considered 'Unrestricted Earth Return' and merit no constraints for planetary protection purposes.
After receiving the mission category a certain level of biological burden is allowed for the mission. In general this is expressed as a 'probability of contamination', but in the case of Mars this has been translated into a metric for the number of Bacillus spores per surface area and present in total on or within the spacecraft: 300 spores per m² free surface, but not more than 3E5 spores in total (category IVa). The amount should be ten thousand times less if area of special protection should be visited. Any sample-return vehicle must then be designed such that the sample is returned in highly reliable containers with measures in place to dispose of any parts of the vehicle which could have been contaminated before re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
Read more about this topic: Planetary Protection
Famous quotes containing the word categories:
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—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
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—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)