Planning Considerations Related to the Organic Contamination of Martian Samples and Implications for the Mars 2020 Rover

Creators: Summons, R. E.; Sessions, A. L.; Allwood, A. C.; Barton, H. A.; Beaty, D. W.; Blakkolb, B.; Canham, J.; Clark, B. C.; Dworkin, J. P.; Lin, Y.; Mathies, R.; Milkovich, S. M.; Steele, A.

Abstract

Data gathered during recent NASA missions to Mars, particularly by the Rovers Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity, have provided important insights into the past history and habitability of the Red Planet. The Mars science community, via input through the National Research Council (NRC) Planetary Science Decadal Survey Committee, also identified the prime importance of a Mars sample return (MSR) mission to further exploration of the Red Planet. In response, the Mars 2020 Mission (Mars 2020) Science Definition Team (SDT) (Mustard et al., 2013) was chartered by the NASA Mars Exploration Program to formulate a new rover mission that would take concrete steps toward an eventual sample return. The SDT recommended that the 2020 rover should select and cache scientifically compelling samples for possible return to Earth. They also noted that organic contamination of the samples was a significant and complex issue that should be independently investigated by a future committee. Accordingly, NASA chartered the Mars 2020 Organic Contamination Panel (OCP).

Additional Information

© 2014 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Submitted 6 October 2014; Accepted 16 October 2014. Most importantly, the technical content of this report benefitted greatly from seven technical reviews of an earlier version; these were contributed by Mike Calaway, David Des Marais, Jack Farmer, Paul Mahaffy, Dorothy Oehler, Mark Sephton, and Barbara Sherwood Lollar. We are deeply appreciative for their time and effort. Multiple other members of the community were engaged in a less structured way by means of presentation/discussion at three events: (1) the May 28–29, 2014 NRC Meeting of Experts (for which written feedback was received by OCP on August 4, 2014), (2) the July 14–18, 2014 8th International Mars Conference (where a poster summarizing preliminary results was presented; see Summons et al., 2014b), and (3) the August 4–8, 2014 Gordon Research Conference on organic geochemistry (where a poster was also displayed)—we thank those who interacted with members of the committee on this subject matter. The OCP acknowledges the intellectual contributions of Marc Fries during the first part of its deliberations. The OCP gratefully acknowledges assistance with the instruments and measurements tables from Sabrina Feldman (JPL) and Lauren DeFlores (JPL). The OCP also wishes to acknowledge the technical contributions made by Mark Anderson (JPL) and Ira Katz (JPL) in the areas of organic contamination measurement and redistribution analyses.

Attached Files

Published - ast.2014.1244.pdf

Files

ast.2014.1244.pdf

Files (3.5 MB)

Name	Size	Download all
ast.2014.1244.pdf md5:7dfbf3ab09daceeb51c8dc94c8f57e9e	3.5 MB	Preview Download

Additional details

	All versions	This version
Views	0	0
Downloads	0	0
Data volume	0 Bytes	0 Bytes