The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) recently updated its Planetary Protection (PP) policy, available on the COSPAR PP website. The COSPAR Panel on PP subcommittee proposed and drafted this new policy.

The COSPAR Bureau validated the new version of the policy on March 20, 2024, marking the first restructuring of the policy since its inception.

“The reorganizing of this policy is noteworthy because previous updates simply added to the existing policy, but did not significantly alter it,” said Nick Benardini, Office of Safety and Mission Assurance Planetary Protection officer.

This new policy represents a substantial effort from the international PP community to advance the policy and restructure it in a way that captures science guidelines and makes it more beneficial to the broader engineering and science communities.

It provides end users with additional clarity on PP policy while positioning the Panel on PP to edit and expand policy in a much more streamlined fashion as researchers uncover new science about target bodies and fill knowledge gaps.

"The changes to the COSPAR policy are intended to be incremental and provide a framework that will help us make more targeted language and technical updates over time as we gain new knowledge,” said Benardini.

Overview of Relevant Changes

Specific changes to the COSPAR policy include

• Updates to chapters 1 and 2, Preamble and Policy, to clarify language and delineate between policy statements and technical guidelines.
• Revisions to Chapter 3, Role of the COSPAR Panel on Planetary Protection, to describe the functions of the Panel on Planetary Protection, focusing on the development of the policy and associated guidance with implementation.

How Does The New COSPAR Policy Impact NASA Policy?

NASA policy is informed by COSPAR policy, so the updated language in the restructured document is now more closely aligned with NASA policy.

• Addition of Chapter 4, Key Assumptions, to highlight key assumptions that form the basis for technical guidelines.
• Addition of Chapter 5, Categorization, to capture the rationale for categorization and assemble all considerations into one chapter.
• Revisions to Chapter 6, to include an objective/intent paragraph at the beginning of each sub-chapter that provides additional context to the end user.
• Addition of Chapter 7, Reporting to COSPAR, to clean up the body of the policy and move detailed examples to the new Appendix B.
• Overhaul of Chapter 8, References to include historical references and additional recent references.
• Addition of Appendix A, Terms and Definitions; Appendix B, Reporting to COSPAR Expected Elements; and Appendix C, Mission Documentation Expected Elements, to provide additional guidance, clarity and details.

An International Effort

A total of 25 members of the COSPAR Panel on PP representing 12 national and international agencies reviewed and validated the current policy, with NASA serving on the policy sub-committee.

“International collaboration continues to be integral in developing a responsible, transparent PP policy,” said Benardini. “Through this collaboration with other space agencies from around the world, we are better positioned to share our knowledge with the external community and help them contextualize our findings, a process NASA wholeheartedly supports.”

Read the press release, “Editorial to the New Restructured and Edited COSPAR Policy on Planetary Protection” for more information on the policy.