planetary protection

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Forward Contamination of Mars

Submitted by Esma Bozlak to fulfill the ethics in science requirement for the Young Scientist Program at BMSIS. Mars has attracted the attention of scientists from the past to present, and going to Mars to explore with robots as well as with humans has been of interest to many people. Many successful, as well as unsuccessful, Mars missions have been attempted since the beginning of the space age. The first successful launch was done with Mariner 4 in 1964. It was the […]

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Afshin Khan
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Dr. Afshin Khan: Crops on Mars

by Emily Harari Every 4th of July, many Americans turn their gaze to the night sky. From a pop of color and a quick clap like thunder, fireworks unveil themselves. In addition to gunpowder, a lesser known ingredient called perchlorates are responsible for the mesmerizing explosions. Perchlorates are salts containing an ion called perchlorate – a chlorine atom bonded to four oxygen atoms. These salts can serve as oxidants for fireworks and explosives, but also can be toxic to living […]

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Ethical Considerations of Altering Mars and Other Planetary Bodies

Tara Vega shares her ethics & society case study, which she completed as part of our Young Scientist Program. While studying the various factors that go into allowing permanent human settlement on Mars, I repeatedly came across many possibilities of contamination. Carrying plants, microbes, water etc., within spacecraft landings to Mars all harbor the possibility of contaminating the red planet. I use not the term contamination as negativity, but more as the result of no better way to explain such an […]

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The Ethics of Space Exploration

Liz Miller shares her ethics & society case study, which she completed as part of our Young Scientist Program. Space exploration is an exciting and constantly progressing field. Fulfilling natural human curiosity about worlds other than our own, exploration of our solar system and beyond is generally met with support by people from all walks of life. While the bulk of our effort is put into allowing both objects and humans to survive safely on other planets and moons, there is […]

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The Problems of Contaminating Mars with Earth’s Microorganisms

Rodrigo Abans shares his ethics & society case study, which he completed as part of our Young Scientist Program. There has been much concern about whether humankind is taking enough care in space exploration. There are a plethora of ethical issues. One of these concerns is the fact that anything that goes offworld carries a certain amount of dormant microorganisms. This led to the decision of destroying the Juno spacecraft by crashing it into Jupiter instead of risking an accidental crash […]

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Podcast: Balancing Exploration and Use of Space Beyond Earth Orbit

Our “Beer with BMSIS” podcast for February features a conversation with Dr. Margaret Race of the SETI Institute about some of the challenges facing astrobiology and space exploration titled “More Bumps in the Road Ahead for Astrobiology?: Balancing Exploration and Use of Space Beyond Earth Orbit“. Commercial space exploration has come along way since the days NASA’s moon landing, and commercial interests in the moon, Mars, asteroids, and other space resources must now be taken as seriously as national space […]

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