Protecting All of the Planets, All of the Time
John Rummel
Planetary Protection Officer, NASA
2137th
Meeting Abstract
Friday, November 30, 2001 at 8:15 PM
Abstract:
Through spacecraft observations we are learning that environments capable of
supporting Earth-life may, indeed, exist elsewhere within our Solar System. As
we learn more about these environments, the need to avoid contamination by
spacecraft-carried microorganisms becomes more compelling. For both scientific
and ethical reasons, plausible habitats elsewhere in the solar system should
not be seeded with Earth organisms, while simple prudence dictates that we not
introduce unknown new organisms onto the Earth. The likelihood of
extraterrestrial life, and NASA's key technical and administrative efforts to
avoid intrasolar biological contamination on past and upcoming missions to Mars
and Europa will be discussed.
About the Author:
John D. Rummel is the NASA's Planetary Protection Officer, based at its
Headquarters in Washington, DC. Previously at NASA he has served as Exobiology
Discipline Scientist, and has overseen programs in Gravitational Biology,
Biospheric Research, and Life Support Systems. From 1994-1997 he was Director
of Research Administration and Education at the Marine Biological Laboratory,
Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He received his doctorate in evolutionary ecology
from Stanford University, and conducted postdoctoral research at NASA's Ames
Research Center in California. He is currently a Faculty Affiliate in the
Civil Engineering Department at Colorado State University, and a Fellow of the
AAAS. He maintains a research interest in community ecology and evolution, and
in the biogeography of the deep sea hydrothermal vents in Earth's oceans-and
perhaps elsewhere.
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