By 
December 30th, 2020
Permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) on the Moon are those sunlight-shy craters that may well contain loads of precious water ice. Credit: Hongyu Cui
A new report has focused on safeguarding the surface and subsurface regions of the Earth’s Moon from organic and biological contamination.
In future years, there is concern regarding the impact of human activities on the Moon that would affect lunar polar volatiles, such as water, carbon dioxide, and methane.
There is potential threat of contaminating permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) – those sunlight-shy craters that may well contain loads of precious water ice – a resource to extract and process into oxygen, water, as well as rocket fuel.
Credit: NASA
However, the new study points to the scientific need to understand prebiotic evolution and the origin of life, and the likelihood that spacecraft landing on the lunar surface will transfer volatiles to polar cold traps.
The report — Planetary Protection for the Study of Lunar Volatiles — has been issued by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, completed by the Committee on Planetary Protection.
Lunar south pole – future Moon base location.
Credit: NASA
Findings
The committee’s specific findings are as follows:
Finding 1: The scientific potential of the Moon’s poles and PSRs is significant, including for studies of prebiotic chemical evolution that have long been within the scope of national and international planetary protection policy.
Finding 2: Understanding of the lunar poles and PSRs has advanced but remains incomplete concerning many scientific questions, including how cold traps on the lunar surface function with respect to volatile and organic chemicals, the nature and composition of water and other volatile deposits in PSRs, and how the water and other ice deposits inform the scientific understanding of prebiotic chemical evolution in the solar system.
Finding 3: Tapping the scientific potential of the lunar poles and PSRs requires accelerating lunar science across orbital and in situ missions and building “ground truth” about these regions to inform planning for planetary protection approaches for future scientific, exploration, and commercial activities on the Moon.
Credit: James Vaughan (Used with permission) http://www.jamesvaughanphoto.com/directory-aerospace-defense-illustrations
Finding 4: Inventories of biological materials for spacecraft and other lunar equipment are unimportant for planetary protection purposes because (1) the Moon’s surface does not support indigenous forms of life or the proliferation of terrestrial organisms brought to the Moon; (2) biological contamination of the lunar surface will not contaminate the lunar subsurface through the operation of natural processes on the Moon; and (3) any biological material identified in samples from the lunar surface or subsurface can be tested against terrestrial organisms to determine its source.
Finding 5: There is a lack of, and need for, studies to characterize the chemical composition, transport, and the level of contamination of volatiles that would be harmful to future investigations of prebiotic chemical evolution to be pursued at PSRs. This information is necessary to determine whether to establish planetary protection requirements for missions to these areas of the Moon, such as a requirement for reporting the inventory of propellants, combustion products, and potential off-gassing volatiles from spacecraft.
Image details water ice mining at Shackleton crater on the Moon.
Credit: School of Mines/Dreyer, Williams, Sowers
In arriving at the set of findings, the committee concludes that a critical issue is the absence of formally defined and accepted, prioritized, science objectives. The committee’s final, overarching finding is:
Finding 6: A clear articulation of prioritized science objectives to frame a strategy for exploration of the lunar PSRs does not exist and is required for an effective planetary protection policy for the Moon.
To read the document — Planetary Protection for the Study of Lunar Volatiles (2020) – go to:
Posted in Space News
Concept/Sentence 1: “There is potential threat of contaminating permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) – those sunlight-shy craters that may well contain loads of precious water ice – a resource to extract and process into oxygen, water, as well as rocket fuel.”
This is a nonsensical sentence: First, one studies the water ice and volatiles; then, 2nd, one contaminates the heck out of them by mining to use as a resource.
Concept/Sentence 2: “However, the new study points to the scientific need to understand prebiotic evolution and the origin of life,…” Prebiotic evolution is a disingenuous concept. There is early chemical evolution; it is not pre-biotic, because there is no biology or life. After that there may be organic compounds, as there are organic compounds in the interstellar medium. The reflect the stability of certain simple organic compounds and they have nothing to do with life and biology, at that stage. The term “pre-biotic” is an oxymoron, devised as an effort to justify “astrobiology”. There is no biology in stars. There is organic chemistry, away from stars, with preciously few clues and no real understanding of how organic chemistry yields biology.
The NAS report