Mars technology program Planetary Protection technology development

The objectives of the NASA Planetary Protection program are to preserve biological and organic conditions of solar-system bodies for future scientific exploration and to protect the Earth from potential hazardous extraterrestrial contamination. As the exploration of solar system continues, NASA remains committed to the implementation of planetary protection policy and regulations. To fulfill this commitment, the Mars Technology Program (MTP) has invested in a portfolio of tasks for developing necessary technologies to meet planetary protection requirements for the next decade missions.(1,2) The MTP planetary protection technology development program comprises seven tasks: 1. Cleaning to achieve sterility 2. Rapid single spore enumeration assay 3. Light weight biobarrier technology 4. Spore adhesion for contamination transport model 5. Near field and integrated particle transport model 6. Mars orbital debris analysis toot 7. Contained sample handling and analysis In this paper, we will give an overview of the task objectives, current technical progress, and future directions.