Thanks for the post. I was unaware a Planetary Protection Officer was even a thing and the title is a bit...something. Obviously it sounds a bit much, but in reality it also ironically seems pretty reasonable. I wonder what the protocols for resource sharing are between the PPO and Space Force.
Additionally, the classification system seems odd for another reason although you did mention for a Category IV mission
There are a few sub-categories for this depending on what kind of experiments are planned or if they travel to “Martian Special Regions” where Martian life is most likely to be and/or Earth life is likely to survive.
This latest mission to Mars, the rover Perseverance, is actually setup to prepare samples of Martian material to be returned to Earth by subsequent missions. Wouldn’t that technically qualify this mission for a designation of a Category V? Considering Perseverance is acquiring and preparing the samples for return, although not returning them, it is still coming into contact with material that has the potential to become contaminated.
An interesting point. I’m very unsure of this, but I think that the main difference between IV and V is that V includes measures to prevent introduction of Martian life to Earth. The mission to collect the prepared samples would certainly be a category V according to my understanding. Perhaps the crew or lander collecting the samples would first have to do some sort of examination, assuming Perseverance hadn’t already?
Thanks for the post. I was unaware a Planetary Protection Officer was even a thing and the title is a bit...something. Obviously it sounds a bit much, but in reality it also ironically seems pretty reasonable. I wonder what the protocols for resource sharing are between the PPO and Space Force.
Additionally, the classification system seems odd for another reason although you did mention for a Category IV mission
This latest mission to Mars, the rover Perseverance, is actually setup to prepare samples of Martian material to be returned to Earth by subsequent missions. Wouldn’t that technically qualify this mission for a designation of a Category V? Considering Perseverance is acquiring and preparing the samples for return, although not returning them, it is still coming into contact with material that has the potential to become contaminated.
An interesting point. I’m very unsure of this, but I think that the main difference between IV and V is that V includes measures to prevent introduction of Martian life to Earth. The mission to collect the prepared samples would certainly be a category V according to my understanding. Perhaps the crew or lander collecting the samples would first have to do some sort of examination, assuming Perseverance hadn’t already?