Risk Assessment of Sterilization Alternatives for a Sample Return Mission

NASA/JPL Engineering, 2020–21

Liaison(s): Todd Paulos ’90
Advisor(s): Erik Spjut
Students(s): Oliver Baldwin (TL-S), Rara Nares, Aarthi Namasivayam (TL-F), Edward Jacobs (F), Sophia Lauf (F), Ben Moul (S)

The team will create a Safety Case to delineate plausible avenues for mitigating hazards to Earth’s biosphere associated with extraterrestrial sample return missions. In order to support the assumptions associated with this Safety Case, research on bacterial and viral threat dependencies will be completed. Ideally, the team will outline experimental plans for testing of neutralization methods.