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===Robert Walker===
[[Image:Robert Walker.jpg|thumb|thumb|200px|right|Photo of myself]]
Hi, I founded this wiki after I got blocked as an editor in Wikipedia (see [[Astrobiology:Background to this encyclopedia|background to this encyclopedia]]). I trained as a mathematician and have a long term interest in astronomy and space missions, and many related areas of science including of course astrobiology. A few years back I developed an interest in planetary protection for robotic and human missions to Mars and other planets and moons in our solar system. I've been blogging about this for some time on my blog on Science 2.0 and quora, and wrote a book on planetary protection [http://robertinventor.com/booklets/If_humans_touch_Mars.htm Touch Mars? Europa? Enceladus? Or a Tale of Missteps?]
My own views on the planetary protection debate are that we should send humans to the Moon first, where we can learn about sustainability in space, and about effects of forwards contamination in a place where the effects are limited and comparatively easy to contain. I think we should explore Mars from orbit and do a thorough astrobiological survey before we consider whether to send humans to the surface, and what precautions to take. I think it is premature to try to do this at such an early stage in our understanding of the astrobiology of Mars (if any). Sending humans to the Mars surface right now
I also think we should work towards 100% sterile rovers for astrobioloogy and believe that this is feasible using the technology being developed for Venus surface missions, with heat sterilizaation to 300 °C. That is hot enough to destroy all amino acids, so a few months heat sterilization at 300 C in an interplanetary journey would result in a 100% sterile spacecraft. Any method of 100% sterilization is fine but that seems the most feasible at present. I know that it is ambitious at present but once we can achieve that we can send astrobiological rovers and instruments anywhere, even to the most vulnerable habitats, without any concerns of contamination. So the pay off would be enormous. They could also be used for habitats on Earth such as lake Vostok which we wish to keep free of contamination by surface life.
I express views like this in my blog, but not in the encylcopedia. So far I have not tried to get a paper published on my own views
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