Introduction to Planetary Protection
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Contents

  • Introduction
  • Learning outcomes
  • 1 Why are we protecting the planets?
    • 1.1 ‘Are we alone?’
      • 1.1.1 What is life?
      • 1.1.2 Biosignatures
      • 1.1.3 Habitable environments
    • 1.2 Where did we come from?
    • 1.3 Protecting the Earth
      • 1.3.1 Launch and return
      • 1.3.2 Biohazards
  • 2 What are we protecting space from?
    • 2.1 Biological contamination
      • 2.1.1 Living in extreme environments
      • 2.1.2 Analogue sites
      • 2.1.3 Survival strategies
    • 2.2 Organic contamination
      • 2.2.1 MOC on spacecraft
      • 2.2.2 MOC in the natural environment
      • 2.2.3 MOC and the Moon
  • 3 The governance of planetary protection
    • 3.1 The Outer Space Treaty
    • 3.2 The COPSAR Panel on Planetary Protection
    • 3.3 The COPSAR Planetary Protection Policy
    • 3.4 The Icy Worlds: A Planetary Protection Case Study
      • 3.4.1 Exploring icy worlds
      • 3.4.2 Limiting contamination on icy worlds
      • 3.4.3 Cassini’s sacrifice
  • 4 Planetary Protection Requirements
    • 4.1 The history of planetary protection requirements
      • 4.1.1 Planetary protection and Mars exploration
      • 4.1.2 Planetary protection for Mars today
      • 4.1.3 Mars sample return
    • 4.2 Cleanroom environments
      • 4.2.1 How clean is clean?
      • 4.2.2 Monitoring bioburden
      • 4.2.3 Monitoring MOC in cleanrooms
    • 4.3 Bioburden Reduction
      • 4.3.1 Pre-launch sterilisation
      • 4.3.2 Sterilisation during a mission
  • 5 The future of planetary protection
  • 6 Conclusion
  • 7 Quiz
  • 8 Tell us what you think?
  • Acknowledgements
  • Glossary

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