International Committee Against Mars Sample Return
Template:Notability The "International Committee Against Mars Sample Return",[1] or ICAMSR, is an advocacy group of scientists who campaign against Mars sample return. They have been quoted in news stories about plans for Mars Sample Return.[2][3][4][5][full citation needed]
The director of ICAMSR is Barry DiGregorio, author of the book "Mars: The Living Planet",[6] a 1997 re-examination of the Viking biology results. Notable advisors include Gilbert Levin who was responsible for the Viking spacecraft biological experiments, and Chandra Wickramasinghe.[7]
The original inspiration comes from Carl Sagan's concerns about Mars Sample Return, as described in his book the Cosmic Connection, where he wrote (in 1973):[8]
Precisely because Mars is an environment of great potential biological interest, it is possible that on Mars there are pathogens, organisms which, if transported to the terrestrial environment, might do enormous biological damage - a Martian plague, the twist in the plot of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, but in reverse. This is an extremely grave point. On the one hand, we can argue that Martian organisms cannot cause any serious problems to terrestrial organisms, because there has been no biological contact for 4.5 billion years between Martian and terrestrial organisms. On the other hand, we can argue equally well that terrestrial organisms have evolved no defenses against potential Martian pathogens, precisely because there has been no such contact for 4.5 billion years. The chance of such an infection may be very small, but the hazards, if it occurs, are certainly very high.
Carl Sagan's concerns are shared by otehr scientists who have looked at issues of a Mars sample retur[9][10]
The ICAMSR have as their main goal, that samples are certified safe in situ or in space first before they are returned to Earth.
Having planetary/cometary samples certified as "biosphere safe" in space or in-situ before they are transferred to the Earth’s surface is our main goal and intention.[11]
See also
References
- ↑ ICAMSR - RAISING PUBLIC AWARENESS ABOUT PLANETARY PROTECTION SINCE 2000
- ↑ Richard Stenger Mars sample return plan carries microbial risk, group warns CNN
- ↑ Barry E. DiGregorio Can Martian Microbes Endanger The Earth?
- ↑ Jacques Arnould Icarus' Second Chance: The Basis and Perspectives of Space Ethics
- ↑ Barry E. DiGregorio Another Threat to Earth: "Mars Sample Return"
- ↑ Barry DiGregorio Mars: The Living Planet North Atlantic Books, 29 Sep 1997 ISBN 1883319587
- ↑ ICAMSR Advisors
- ↑ Carl Sagan,The Cosmic Connection - an Extraterrestrial Perspective (1973) ISBN 0521783038
- ↑ Joshua Lederberg Parasites Face a Perpetual Dilemma Volume 65, Number 2, 1999 / American Society for Microbiology News 77.
- ↑ Mars Exploration Strategies: Forget About Sample Return D. A. Paige, Dept. of Earth and Space Sciences, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095
- ↑ ICAMSR - Charter
| This article uses material from the June 2013 revision of International Committee Against Mars Sample Return on Wikipedia ( view authors). License under CC BY-SA 3.0. | 
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