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ESDMD #1202: Planetary Protection Technologies for Human Exploration

Technologies to measure and control the microbes and chemicals that crewed missions release at Mars, and to protect crew from anything brought back inside (bin 5, rating 44 of 57). Robotic spacecraft are cleaned and heat-sterilized before launch, but once humans are aboard that approach no longer works. Today "life support systems and airlocks vent unfiltered gas to environment". A Mars-only gap, in the Humans to Mars segment (Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #1202).

Quotations below are from row ESDMD #1202 of the tech gaps spreadsheet unless marked otherwise. ADD Rev C's Appendix D prints the same table for this gap, and it matches the row field for field (ADD Rev C, p. 260).

Description

"Current robotic spacecraft are assembled in various levels of clean facilities, cleaned to prevent contaminants and to meet applicable bioburden control requirements, and sterilized using heat. Once humans enter exploration systems, preventing contamination at exploration destinations at Mars becomes much more complex. Bioburden management, sample handling, and sensing/monitoring will be key components of effective planetary protection measures. In-situ technologies that can minimize crew effort and operational complexity to keep contamination prevention realistic and cost-effective will be an effective part of a successful scientific exploration campaign."

Impacts and benefits: "Without gap closure, the impacts are possible constraints on human traverse paths and destinations, which could drive design requirements necessary for compliance with applicable planetary protection protocols. Uncontrolled and unquantified release of bioburden from vehicles, space suits, and items deposited on surface could potentially pose significant contamination threats to geological and life science objectives. Planetary protection countermeasures that prevent venting may significantly impact vehicle life, spacesuit support performance, and vehicle mass."

Current state of the art

"Pre-launch cleaning methods that enable compliance with planetary protection guidelines and protocols for robotic spacecraft provided in NPR 8715.24, NASA-STD-8719.27 and NASA-HDBK-20240016475. Life support systems and airlocks vent unfiltered gas to environment, no ability to disinfect equipment or spacesuits exiting vehicle."

Performance target

Mars: "Ability to quantify and identify bioburden and chemicals released to environment and introduced from exterior into vehicle. Technologies to enable compliance with spacecraft protocols and guidelines."

Child gaps

  • 0304-02*: In-flight identification and characterization of microbes in air, in water, and on surfaces in habitable volumes
  • 1202-01: Methods to minimize forward contamination of Mars environment at crewed exploration sites
  • 1202-02: Mitigation of microbial growth and biofilms in spacecraft systems for planetary protection and crew health
  • 1202-03: Onboard systems to protect crew from backward contamination of potential bioactive molecules

The starred child gap also appears under #0304, habitat monitoring. Here the sheet prints it without the colon ("0304-02* In-flight …"). The ADD's table prints each child gap's ID in its own column (p. 260, PDF checked), so the missing colon is the sheet's alone. The asterisk marks "a child gap with multiple parents" (ADD Rev C, p. 199).

Traceability

  • Use cases and functions: UC-M-202 M -- FN-G-501 M
  • Definition tasks: Mars: MD-10 Mars Forward Contamination Planetary Protection Risk Posture; MD-11 Mars Backward Contamination Planetary Protection Risk Posture

Segments and sub-architectures

Priority

Priority bin 5, overall prioritization rating 44 of 57. The rating is "the gap's location in the prioritized list of gaps", so 1 is the highest priority, and bins group gaps of similar priority, bin 1 highest. Criticality, urgency, breadth and depth set the order; cost is not considered (ADD Rev C, pp. 78, 199; method on the gaps index).

Moon Base relevance

Not established by the sources so far. The gap is Mars-only in the spreadsheet, and the Users Guide does not name it among its near-term Moon Base challenges (Technology and knowledge challenges). One of the Users Guide's Mars-forward areas, "Planetary protection", covers the same subject without citing this gap. It covers both forward contamination (of the Moon and Mars) and backward contamination (of Earth): "Developing planetary protection principles and technologies for the Moon Base will help guide planetary protection for Mars missions" (Users Guide, p. 14; see Mars-forward).

The ACR25 planetary protection white paper is about Mars and doesn't mention the Moon Base (Planetary protection).

Sources

Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #1202 · ADD Rev C, pp. 78, 199, 260 · Users Guide, p. 14 · Planetary protection white paper, pp. 2, 4–5