Abstract
As space exploration advances towards the planetary bodies in the Solar system, the issue of contamination and its impact on the search for life becomes more important. Scientific categorization concepts such as the Plausibility of Life (POL) rating only describe the likelihood of finding conditions suitable for the formation of life on celestial bodies not taking contamination issues into account, while other policy-driven categorizations such as the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and their Planetary Protection Policy mainly focus on aiming to avoid the “harmful contamination” to Earth and other celestial bodies, without thinking of the plausibility of life.
The aim of this paper is to combine the POL categories with the Planetary Protection Policy categories to establish a Planetary Protection Index (PPI). The PPI specifies the type and strictness of the protection for each celestial body under different mission conditions as well as taking into account contamination issues.
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Napier, L., Hettrich, S. (2015). Bridging the GAP: Science and Policy for the Safety of Space Environments Against Contamination – The Planetary Protection Index. In: Sgobba, T., Rongier, I. (eds) Space Safety is No Accident. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15982-9_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15982-9_12
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