THE PROSPECT OF INTERPLANETARY MISSION: ARE WE READY?
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Published:
Aug 4, 2022
Keywords:
Harmful Contamination, Liability, Mars Exploration, Planetary Environment
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Abstract
Mars exploration missions in the future will be focused on Mars Sample Return (MSR) and humans as space crew in late 2028 or early 2030 by NASA and other non-government entities, such as Space Exploration Technologies (Space X) and Blue Origin. MSR and sending humans to explore Mars raises environmental contamination issues, which are governed in law by Article IX of the Outer Space Treaty 1968 to “avoid harmful contamination.” Though there is no existing international law instrument to address this issue comprehensively, Article IX was not clear to explain harmful contamination. Thus, non-governmental entities involved in future missions to Mars face liability, especially in the case of an accident causing fatalities or adverse environmental impact for the Earth and Mars. This article examines related regulations in corpus iuris spatialis, including soft law and elaborating with astrobiological data to encourage new regulation, ensuring liability and environmental safety on future Mars missions.
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Nugraha, T. R. (2022). THE PROSPECT OF INTERPLANETARY MISSION: ARE WE READY?. Padjadjaran Journal of International Law, 6(1), 60-75. https://doi.org/10.23920/pjil.v6i1.821
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects, 1972.
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Bieneman, K., et al. "the Search of Organic Substances and Inorganic volatile Compounds in the Surface of Mars," Journal of Geophysical Research, no.82 (1977).
Conley A. Catherine, Rummel, John D, “Planetary protection for human exploration of Mars,” Acta Austronautica, no. 66 (2010) 792-797, doi: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2009.08.015
DeVincenzi, D. L., P. D. Stabekis, and J. B. Barengoltz. 1983. “A Proposed New Policy for Planetary Protection.” Advances in Space Research 3 (8): 13–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/0273-1177(83)90167-9.
Devincenzi, Donald L., Margaret S. Race, and Harold P. Klein. 1998. “Planetary Protection, Sample Return Missions and Mars Exploration: History, Status, and Future Needs.” Journal of Geophysical Research E: Planets 103 (E12): 28577–85. https://doi.org/10.1029/98JE01600.
Faire, G. Alberto, Dirk Schulze-Makuch, Lyle Whyte, Victor Parro a Alexander Pavlov, Javier Gomez-Elvira, Armando Azua-Bustos, Wolfgang Fink, Victor Baker, Planetary Protection and the astrobiological exploration of Mars: Proactive steps in moving forward, Advance in Space Research, no.63 (2019):1491-1497, doi: 10.1016/j.asr.2019.01.011
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Glavin, Daniel P., Jason P. Dworkin, Mark Lupisella, David R. Williams, Gerhard Kminek, and John D. Rummel. 2010. “In Situ Biological Contamination Studies of the Moon: Implications for Planetary Protection and Life Detection Missions.” Earth, Moon and Planets 107 (1): 87–93. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11038-010-9361-4.
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Kramer, William R, “Extraterrestrial environmental impact assessments e A foreseeable prerequisite for wise decisions regarding outer space exploration, research and development,” Space Policy, no.30 (2014): 215-222, doi: 10.1016/j.spacepol.2014.07.001.
Macaulay, Molly K, “Environmentally Sustainable Human Space Activities: Can Challenges of Planetary Protection be Reconciled?” Astropolitics, no.5 (2007): 209-236,
Nicholson, Wayne L., Andrew C. Schuerger, and Margaret S. Race. 2009. “Migrating Microbes and Planetary Protection.” Trends in Microbiology 17 (9): 389–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2009.07.001.
Robinson, George S, “Exobiological Contamination: The Evolving Law,” Annals of Air and Space Law, vol.17. 1992.
Uhran, Bergit, Catharine Conley, and J. Andy Spry. 2019. “Updating Planetary Protection Considerations and Policies for Mars Sample Return.” Space Policy, no. xxxx: 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spacepol.2019.04.001.
Sterns ,Patricia M., Tennen, Leslie I., Lacuna in the updated planetary protection policy and international law, 23 Life Sciences in Space Research 2019, pp. 10–21
Viikari, Lotta “The Environmental Element in Space Law: Assessing the Present and Charting Future”, Leiden, Martinus Nijhoff Publisher 2008
Westall, Frances, et al. “An ESA study for the search for life on Mars,” Planetary and Space Science, no. 48 (2000), 181-202.
Websites
Grush, Lorens, “Why Stowaway Creatures on the Moon Confound International Space Law”, Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/16/20804219/moon-tardigrades-lunar-lander-spaceil-arch-mission-foundation-outer-space-treaty-law?fbclid=IwAR2B9esSSYG8ttRUAqlmQBhTKc_HPf5FuA-dF-q-utITohiEyUzrUrYsSQI. Accessed on 18 August 2019.
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NASA, “NASA Facts: NASA Pathfinder,” Jet Propulsion Laboratory, https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fact_sheets/mpf.pdf
NASA, “Objectives,”https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/mission/objectives.html. Accessed on September 7, 2019.
Office of Planetary Protection, NASA, “Protecting Life on Other Bodies”, available at: https://planetaryprotection.nasa.gov/categories/ accessed on 29 August 2019.
Sample, Ian, “Tardigrades may have survived spacecraft crashing on moon”, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/aug/06/tardigrades-may-have-survived-spacecraft-crashing-on-moon, Accessed on 21 August 2019.
Space X, “Making Life multiplanetary,” Available at: https://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/making_life_multiplanetary_transcript_2017.pdf. Accessed on 21 August 2019.
Watanabe, Susan, “Phoenix Mars Landers: Exploring the Arctic Plains of Mars,” NASA, Last Modified July 31, 2008, Accessed September 7, 2019, https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20080731.html.
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Williams, R. David, “Viking Mission to Mars,” available at: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html, Accessed on 29 August, 2019.
WIRED, “A Crashed Israeli Lunar Lander Spilled Tardigrades on the Moon”, Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/a-crashed-israeli-lunar-lander-spilled-tardigrades-on-the-moon/?verso=true. Accessed on 21 August 2019.
Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, 1967.
Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects, 1972.
COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy
NASA, A Draft Test Protocol for Detecting Possible Biohazard in Martian Samples Returned to Earth 2002.