What is planetary protection and why is it important?
Planetary protection is critical for enabling scientists to study the natural environments of celestial bodies without interfering with possible life forms that may have developed there. Most importantly, it also helps to preserve the terrestrial biosphere from possible contamination by extraterrestrial material.
Who is NASA’s Planetary Protection Officer?
Dr. J. Nick Benardini
NASA named Dr. J. Nick Benardini as the agency Planetary Protection Officer within the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance, effective June 7.
What is planetary protection technologies?
Planetary protection technologies are for cleaning and sterilizing spacecraft and handling soil, rock, and atmospheric samples. In the study of whether Mars has had environments conducive to life, precautions are taken against introducing microbes from Earth.
What is a CAT 5 planet?
Category V. Unrestricted Category V: “Earth-return missions from bodies deemed by scientific opinion to have no indigenous life forms.” Restricted Category V: “Earth-return missions from bodies deemed by scientific opinion to be of significant interest to the process of chemical evolution or the origin of life.”
What is the Planetary Defense Coordination Office responsible for?
The PDCO is responsible for providing timely and accurate information to the government, the media, and the public on close approaches to Earth by potentially hazardous objects (PHOs) and any potential for impact.
What is a Category 3 planet?
Category 3: Ocean Planet simply means it’s a habitable world that is mostly covered in water. There’s life but you’re going to be wet all the time. Due to the lack of geographical features you can expect very high winds above the surface since there’s nothing to slow the wind down (mountains, hills, trees, etc.)
How do you become a planetary defender?
Once you complete the quiz, you’ll receive a digital certification stating you’re ready to be a planetary defender on NASA’s DART mission. You can download your certificate and planetary defender badge to share on social media using the hashtags #PlanetaryDefender and #DARTMission.
Is there life on Mars?
To date, no proof of past or present life has been found on Mars. Cumulative evidence suggests that during the ancient Noachian time period, the surface environment of Mars had liquid water and may have been habitable for microorganisms, but habitable conditions do not necessarily indicate life.
Can Titan support life?
Titan appears to have lakes of liquid ethane or liquid methane on its surface, as well as rivers and seas, which some scientific models suggest could support hypothetical non-water-based life.
Is there a planetary defense organization?
The Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) is a planetary defense organization established in January 2016 within NASA’s Planetary Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate.
Does the US have a planetary defense system?
NNSA is one of the Federal agencies with responsibilities for “planetary defense” or detecting and mitigating impact threats from potentially hazardous near-Earth objects, such as asteroids and comets. These efforts are part of an official national security focus for the United States.
What is a Category 4 ocean planet?
Category 2 = same as Cat 1, but with more land-based features, and not as much water. Category 3 = same as Cat 1, but with more water-based features, and not as much land. Just conjecturing here, but: Category 4 = same as Cat 2, but with non-earth-normal atmosphere.