26. February 2015 12:18
Review of MEPAG Report on Planetary Protection for Mars Special Regions
The ad hoc Committee for the Review of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) Report on Planetary Protection for Mars Special Regions was established jointly by the European Science Foundation and the US National Research Council to review the 2014 Mars Special Regions report issued by the MEPAG and suggest potential modifications to COSPAR’s current guidelines for the planetary protection requirements for such regions. The resulting report from the review shall include recommendations for an update of the planetary protection requirements for Mars Special Regions. The committee’s organizing meeting was held at the European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, on October 7. The committee held its first full, in-person meeting at the German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam, Germany, on December 16-17. The committee’s second and final scheduled meeting took place in Irvine, CA, USA on February 12-13, 2015. The committee’s final report is currently scheduled for release toward the end of the second quarter of 2015.
Note: COSPAR is the Committee on Space Research, an international association of agencies, scientists and engineers in space research. It was established in 1958 by the International Council for Science (ICSU). The “Special Regions” concept is a component of the COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy for Mars. These are regions “within which terrestrial organisms are likely to replicate” as well as “any region which is interpreted to have a high potential for the existence of extant martian life.”
More info: http://sites.nationalacademies.org/SSB/index.htm
