Kathleen Connelly, who is in charge of planetary protection at NASA, wants to enforce the space treaty that states that planets must be kept in their natural state also on private companies.
Even before, students participating in the MARS ONE competition reported that they were applying "Plant" Mars with the help of blue bacteria The following interview was published in Scientific American. It turns out that there is indeed a loophole in the law, which makes it difficult for private entities to enforce the Space Treaty.
An interview with Planetary Defense Commissioner Catherine Connelly
NASA's Office of Planetary Defense has only one employee - Catherine Connelly. Its role is to ensure that NASA and other American organizations that go into space obey the regulations established by the International Space Treaty in 1967, which are intended to ensure that scientists can explore other worlds in their natural state, that they do not cause biological contamination of the environments being studied and that they protect the Earth's fauna from extraterrestrial life that may Existing. It can be said that the future of our solar system is in her hands.
Commissioner of Planetary Defense, Catherine Connelly
Commissioner of Planetary Defense, Catherine Connelly has been guarding Earth from possible aliens since 2005.
It is clear why we would want to protect Earth from alien life forms, but why should Earth organisms be kept away from other planets?
If we want to explore the biological potential on other planets, we have to control the level of contamination. When doing experiments in search of life, one has to choose very carefully which one to believe [so as not to mistake and interpret biological contamination as local life].
How do you guarantee that there will be no cross-contamination between the Earth and other planets?
On the Viking missions, the landing vehicles were packed and kept in an anti-biological envelope and heated in an oven to destroy organisms. We call this "system-wide sterilization". The vehicles were not removed from the envelopes until they reached Mars, so that they would not become contaminated. There has never been a more rigorous application of planetary protection, because we had to protect the life detectors and the environment on Mars in case it turned out that life from Earth could survive there.
NASA plans to derail an asteroid and send it into orbit around the moon in the 20s of our century. Are you worried about what the astronauts might find on it?
Small asteroids have had such a long journey through space, where they have absorbed enormous solar radiation and heat. Therefore any organism that may have been on them is already dead. Still, we will review any asteroid that is proposed to be de-orbited, because we want the system to remain clean, especially if there will eventually be regular traffic between the Earth and the Moon.
There are more and more commercial space activities. Can NASA monitor the level of cleanliness in them?
We have spent quite a bit of taxpayer money over the years trying to protect other planets from pollution. Today we find out how the US can properly monitor the actions of non-governmental groups. In cases where NASA does not provide the support, it is currently unclear who will be responsible for negligence.
Will new legislation be needed to control these groups?
It should be considered. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is in charge of launches and landings anyway, so any activity that takes place in the atmosphere can be monitored. And NASA has a system that provides data for FAA procedures. But we are not a supervisory authority.
There are plans for non-governmental manned flights to Mars in the coming decades. This surely creates a lot of new problems in terms of protecting the Red Planet.
Definitely. Will the people reach Mars alive? If they die on the surface of Mars, will it contaminate its surface? [Such events may be] a hindrance to future studies.
Your wing's purpose seems to be less about protecting planets from humanity and more about protecting them for humanity.
The goal is specifically to maintain the activities that people want to do. Initially this will be a scientific activity, but in the future other things will be done as well. If you want to drill to reach an underground water reservoir on Mars, for the benefit of the future colonists this drilling should be clean, because organisms may grow in the reservoir and change the conditions so that it is not available to them. It happened on Earth. That would be a shame.
The article was published with the permission of Scientific American Israel
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To Yossi:
you are an idiot
her houses
It's possible. That's knowledge I don't have. It is clear that Libyans stop because of interests under the guise of greens and mayors stop the development because of interests. It's a pity for us that they behave like this. Regarding Elon Musk. The guy believes in what he's doing and I hope he doesn't run out of money before he succeeds. SPACE_X is several numbers bigger than PAYPAL, and TESLA.
Shay Agassi ran out of money before realizing the vision. A little because of corporate greed. If electricity actually costs 30 NIS for 1500 km, then why charge 2,500 NIS per month for leasing.
Leosie,
It is the trucking companies, not the airlines, that keep the train to Eilat in abeyance. We've been talking about it for years. About the truck unions that every time they hear a train to Eilat - money starts changing hands and suddenly it is not profitable to operate a train. Until there is a minister of transportation with the courage to change officials - there will be no train.
Husham:
I accept your solution. In the train tender to Eilat, the Chinese won, according to the rumor, in exchange for a 33-year concession, and the entire investment on them. I would invest in telling you who opposes and why. But Dee Blumer agrees with you.
I think I deviated with the example from the topic. If there is a fast train to Eilat, who will lose? flying companies.
If there is no train to Eilat, who will lose? all of us Autonomy will be demanded in David and annexation to Palestine will be demanded, we will concentrate on the coastal plain and our fate will be like the fate of the Philistines during the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. We will not be able to live in front of the Qassams in Gush Dan either. In contrast, if there is a train, the Negev will go to Gush Dan, and people who are willing to live in the Negev will also work in Gush Dan and sleep in the Negev.
In the western United States, the railroad has transformed the West. Similarly you will try to introduce bureaucracy into space settlement. Elon Musk from SPACEX has a very clear vision. Establishing a settlement on Mars. Finally, one has risen with receipts (TESLA, PAYPAL) that does not need to invest billions in space projects, and instead of the US government that failed there, invests himself. Technology jumped in the years 2004-2015 wonders because of the space. DAWN's ion engine unlike Musk's is an amazing thing. The mass is created from plasma, and plasma is produced by a voltage of tens of thousands of volts or a plasma laser. In plasma the speed of the particles is close to the speed of light. What it lacks in mass it makes up for in significant momentum at speed. Here you have an engine with tremendous propulsion potential in a limited volume. I jump from topic to topic, but see the contexts between things. The risk is from another direction. If Elon Musk reaches Mars first, he is no ordinary citizen. He can build a colony on Mars. That's why we need a regulation that Mars belongs to all of us.
To Yossi:
I don't think it's fair to blame the airlines
Because one of the solutions is to give them, let's say, 50%
from the operation of the magnetic train.
It's not bad that Obama singled out the space industry. True, on the other hand, we need regulation so as not to turn one person into a tyrant in a planetary sense. But in a place where there is no life to our understanding, it is possible to build a human settlement.
On the one hand, regulation is required regarding private companies. Elon Musk invests on the scale of the US government after succeeding in PAYPAL and TESLA. He has intentions of being a pioneer of space exploration. The greens are sometimes animal guardians and sometimes followers of the science of statics. Nothing is built anywhere in the universe. So how do we spread civilization? If there will only be ISIS and garbage here, how will we ensure that culture in the positive sense will continue?
On the other hand, I am against preserving the natural state in a place where there is no life as far as we understand. The Greens and, in my opinion, too many stakeholders such as the airlines to Eilat, freeze every time again projects whose purpose is to turn the Negev and the Galilee into populated areas, I don't like the Jews either. Every freeze, 8 organizations petition the High Court and stop the process.
As a result, we don't have a train for 25 years to Eilat and the Negev that could have been made accessible to Gush Dan, full of Bedouin shacks that the Greens have nothing to complain about. A train project anywhere else in the world: two years and that's it. Not here. 2 meters wide of a train, in an area full of dumpsters and garbage, no longer pollute the environment. Where they "cross" the living area of animals, passing over a bridge, in wadis. A magnetic train, for example, would travel at least 400 km/h and would reach Eilat in no time. What else. It will destroy business for the airlines. And so, under the guise of greens, the matter stalled.
Against the bus the airport easily competes. an hour instead of 5 hours. 120 NIS instead of 80 NIS (you have to buy a sandwich for another 40 NIS and we arrived at the same price), arrival at the Tel Aviv Airport/Sde Dov instead of Tel Aviv Central Station.
If research is reliable, then the equipment is sterile. What if the cosmic radiation will have an effect. But to go out with a puritanical approach of "don't pollute", "we don't want to change". It is polished. A tremendous amount of work is being done on manned research to Mars.
Coriander or cilantro
"The natural state" = widespread death, no clothing, no vaccination, scarce food = tomatoes in South America only. No electricity. Even without vegans - because their food is very synthetic. This is ridiculous because you cannot prevent asteroids from landing on planets. What's more, it was violated Already because of the landing of probes on Mars.