Planetary Protection Policy for Mars

In 1984 a revised planetary protection policy for Mars was approved by an international committee. The policy maintains the commitment by all the space agencies of the world to preserve planetary environments from terrestrial contamination. Recently, the policy was revised for specific Mars missions from Russia and the United States. The following policies for Mars missions are in effect:

"Landers carrying instrumentation for in situ investigation of extant (existing) Martian life should be subject to at least Viking-level sterilization procedures."

(Viking 2 in clean room prior to launch)

"Spacecraft (including orbiters) without biological experiments should be subject to at least Viking-level pre-sterilization procedures - such as clean room assembly and cleaning of all components - for bio-load reduction, but such spacecraft need not be sterilized."

Just prior to launch, the Viking mission was sterilized by baking the spacecraft lander in an oven at 125 degree temperature for an extended period of time. This procedure was designed to kill any organic matter of Earth origin.

DeVincenzi, D. L., P. Stabekis, and J. Barengoltz, Refinement of Planetary Protection Policy for Mars Missions, Adv. Space Res., Vol. 18, No. 1/2, pp. (1/2)311-(1/2)316, 1996.