Planetary protection for a Mars sample return: Difference between revisions
Planetary protection for a Mars sample return (edit)
Revision as of 13:40, 8 February 2022
, 2 years agono edit summary
No edit summary Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit Visual edit |
No edit summary |
||
Line 677:
===Issues with the use of quarantine periods in space to contain any biohazard===
A 1997 study by the National Research Council found some issues with the use of humans in quarantine which would need to be addressed with any proposal that involves human quarantine, such as Levin's. First, the study raised the issue that it would be hard to know for sure if any detected anomaly was the result of contamination. How, they say, could sufficient certainty be achieved to justify destroying the returning spacecraft and its crew?<ref name=NRCcomittee>[http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ePXFB4NT18IC&pg=PA30&lpg=
</ref>
Line 700:
The NRC study concluded that as a result of these issues, the human quarantine approach does not give guarantee of containment of any issues found.<ref name=NRCcomittee /><ref>For editor verification of the paraphrase
{{bq|Using the return flight as an incubation period and the crew as guinea pigs (as has been suggested) is not a solution to back contamination on human missions. Would the whole mission be risked if an unanticipated contamination occurred? How would the cause of the infection be known with enough certainty to justify destroying the returning spacecraft before it entered Earth's atmosphere? The whole spacecraft, not only the astronauts, would be contaminated. In addition infection might not be the only risk. A returning organism could possibly cause some long-term changes in our environment, perhaps remaining undetected for a while. Although such an event may be judged to have a very low probability, a convincing case that prudence has been exercised will have to be made to the public.
Board, S.S. and National Research Council, 1997. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jjWcAgAAQBAJ The human exploration of space]. National Academies Press ([https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jjWcAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44Page 44]).
</ref>
|