PLANETARY PROTECTION:ORGANISATION,REQUIREMENTS AND NEEDS FOR FUTURE PLANETARY EXPLORATION MISSIONS

摘要

According to the United Nations(UN)Space Treaties and in line with the COSPAR recommendations,the exploration of the Solar System needs to comply with planetary protection constraints in order to avoid the contamination of extraterrestrial bodies(particularly the biological contamination by terrestrial microorganisms), and to protect our Earth from an eventual contamination carried by return systems or return samples.Indirectly, it is also required to preserve the properties of extraterrestrial samples in order to conduct exobiological investigations with the maximum degree of confidence. These constraints impose unusual tasks based principally on sterilisation,sterile and ultraclean integration,microbiological and cleanliness control,the use of high reliability systems in order to avoid crashs, and to implement them during each concerned project development and operation.In the frame of future planetary missions,taking into past experience,the main needs can now been defined in order to conduct European missions in compliance with planetary protection regulations.