Science, Maths & Technology
Planetary Protection of Icy Worlds
...concepts is that of the ‘period of biological exploration’, which for icy worlds is 1000 years, and that the probability that a robotic mission will operate, and therefore potentially contaminate an icy world in that period is less than 1 x 10-4. This is calculated by considering how much biological material (bioburden) the spacecraft carries, whether microorganisms...