Committee on Planetary Protection (CoPP): Issue Paper on the Limits of Life
This issue paper is part of the overarching activities of the Committee on Planetary Protection (CoPP). When requested by the sponsor and approved by the National Academies, select members of the CoPP and other authors, as needed, may produce a non-consensus, individually-authored paper. This issue paper will discuss the parameters by which NASA can evaluate the limits of terrestrial life and the probability of growth on Mars as it pertains to informing decision making regarding the performance based, probability of contamination approach for enabling crew on Mars.