Planetary Protection Biological Safety Assurance Case for Mars Sample Return (MSR)

NASA/JPL Engineering, 2022–23

Liaison(s): Dr. Todd Paulos ’90, Brian Clement, Lisa Guan
Advisor(s): Ziyad Durón ’81
Students(s): Alexander Schlegel (TL-S), Julienne Ho (TL-F), Nick Zemtzov, Kylee Graper, Devon Overbey, Javier Perez, Leah McGregor, Johnny Yang

The Mars Sample Return Mission will mark the first time in history that humanity brings back material from a celestial body theoretically capable of nurturing life. It is important to JPL and NASA that they and the public have a clear idea of the potential risks associated with returning Mars material. To that end, this Clinic team has built a “safety case” that diagnoses the severity of a range of possible threats to Earth from the returned samples.