Mars Sample Return: Issues and Recommendations (1997)
Chapter: FRONT MATTER
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Cover: This Viking Orbiter image, 200 kilometers across, shows water-worn, branching valley networks in the cratered uplands of Mars. These valleys are the main evidence for a warm wet climate on early Mars. (Photograph courtesy of NASA.)
Copyright 1997 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
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TASK GROUP ON ISSUES IN SAMPLE RETURN
KENNETH H. NEALSON,
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,
Chair
MICHAEL H. CARR,
U.S. Geological Survey
BENTON C. CLARK,
Lockheed Martin Astronautics
RUSSELL F. DOOLITTLE,
University of California, San Diego
BRUCE M. JAKOSKY,
University of Colorado
EDWARD L. KORWEK,
Law Offices of Hogan & Hartson, L.L.P.
NORMAN R. PACE,
University of California, Berkeley
JEANNE S. POINDEXTER,
Barnard College/Columbia University
MARGARET S. RACE,
SETI Institute
ANNA-LOUISE REYSENBACH,
Rutgers University
J. WILLIAM SCHOPF,
University of California, Los Angeles
TODD O. STEVENS,
Pacific Northwest Laboratory
PETER W. ROONEY, Study Director
BARBARA L. JONES, Administrative Associate
SPACE STUDIES BOARD
CLAUDE R. CANIZARES,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Chair
MARK R. ABBOTT,
Oregon State University
JOHN A. ARMSTRONG,*
IBM Corporation (retired)
JAMES P. BAGIAN,
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
DANIEL N. BAKER,
University of Colorado
LAWRENCE BOGORAD,
Harvard University
DONALD E. BROWNLEE,
University of Washington
JOHN J. DONEGAN,
John Donegan Associates, Inc.
GERARD W. ELVERUM, JR.,
TRW
ANTHONY W. ENGLAND,
University of Michigan
DANIEL J. FINK,*
D.J. Fink and Associates, Inc.
MARTIN E. GLICKSMAN,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
RONALD GREELEY,
Arizona State University
BILL GREEN, former member,
U.S. House of Representatives
NOEL W. HINNERS,*
Lockheed Martin Astronautics
ANDREW H. KNOLL,
Harvard University
JANET G. LUHMANN,
University of California, Berkeley
JOHN H. McELROY,*
University of Texas, Arlington
ROBERTA BALSTAD MILLER,
CIESIN
BERRIEN MOORE III,
University of New Hampshire
KENNETH H. NEALSON,
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
MARY JANE OSBORN,
University of Connecticut Health Center
SIMON OSTRACH,
Case Western Reserve University
MORTON B. PANISH,
AT&T Bell Laboratories (retired)
CARLÉ M. PIETERS,
Brown University
MARCIA J. RIEKE,
University of Arizona
JOHN A. SIMPSON,
Enrico Fermi Institute
ROBERT E. WILLIAMS,
Space Telescope Science Institute
MARC S. ALLEN, Director
COMMISSION ON PHYSICAL SCIENCES, MATHEMATICS, AND APPLICATIONS
ROBERT J. HERMANN,
United Technologies Corporation,
Co-chair
W. CARL LINEBERGER,
University of Colorado,
Co-chair
PETER M. BANKS,
Environmental Research Institute of Michigan
LAWRENCE D. BROWN,
University of Pennsylvania
RONALD G. DOUGLAS,
Texas A&M University
JOHN E. ESTES,
University of California, Santa Barbara
L. LOUIS HEGEDUS,
Elf Atochem North America, Inc.
JOHN E. HOPCROFT,
Cornell University
RHONDA J. HUGHES,
Bryn Mawr College
SHIRLEY A. JACKSON,
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
KENNETH H. KELLER,
University of Minnesota
KENNETH I. KELLERMANN,
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
MARGARET G. KIVELSON,
University of California, Los Angeles
DANIEL KLEPPNER,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
JOHN KREICK,
Sanders, a Lockheed Martin Company
MARSHA I. LESTER,
University of Pennsylvania
THOMAS A. PRINCE,
California Institute of Technology
NICHOLAS P. SAMIOS,
Brookhaven National Laboratory
L.E. SCRIVEN,
University of Minnesota
SHMUEL WINOGRAD,
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
CHARLES A. ZRAKET,
MITRE Corporation (retired)
NORMAN METZGER, Executive Director
Preface
There has long been great interest in returning samples from solar system bodies, especially Mars. The level of scientific and public interest increased measurably during the summer of 1996 with the announcement that a naturally conveyed sample, namely, a martian meteorite found on Earth, contained circumstantial evidence of possible prior life on Mars. Studies of the meteorite also support inferences from observations of surface features that Mars once had liquid water. Since terrestrial investigations of extreme environments now indicate that primitive life appears wherever liquid water and energy are present, the meteorite results reinforce the hypothesis that life emerged on Mars, whether or not the meteorite is shown to contain direct evidence of past life there.
The present report, by the Task Group on Issues in Sample Return, addresses the question of how to ensure that any sample returned to Earth from elsewhere in the solar system has no adverse effects on our own biosphere. It complements an earlier Space Studies Board document that examined the related issue of how to keep the solar system bodies themselves clean of possible biological contamination by terrestrial spacecraft (Biological Contamination of Mars: Issues and Recommendations, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1992), and which provided the basis for a modification of the planetary protection requirements for Mars lander missions.
Two NASA spacecraft are now on their way to Mars, beginning a new program to survey the planet and assess promising locations for sample collection. It seems likely that a sample return mission will be launched to Mars within a decade. Planning for such a mission should include consideration of the recommendations presented here.
Claude R. Canizares, Chair
Space Studies Board
