Duration: 36 months
Article IX of the Outer Space Treaty (OST) (1) requires that State parties adopt appropriate measures to avoid harmful contamination of celestial bodies and adverse changes on Earth. ESA acts on behalf of its Member States, all of which are State parties to the OST. As such, ESA's activities shall comply with Member States' obligations to Article IX. The current PP standards, rooted in methodologies from the 1970s NASA Viking mission, are outdated. Our understanding of microbial life has evolved, and so must our approach to PP. We propose a revolutionary project in line with ESA’s PP vision for 2026 (2). Our goal is to enhance the standard assay (3) with a cutting-edge probabilistic risk assessment model. Recent research (4) has unveiled several knowledge gaps, such as the survivability of PP-relevant microorganisms, which we aim to address now systematically. For this, we will leverage state-of-the-art metagenomics as a key technology to assess biodiversity and the risk of forward and backward contaminations. By integrating real-time sequencing technologies like Nanopore, we can profile low biomass environments in a timely manner (<24h) and allow engineers to take action. To truly understand the adaptation of microbes to cleanroom and spacecraft environments, we will implement genome-scale metabolite predictions and mass spectrometry of proteins and metabolites. We plan to develop a supervised machine learning model that uses metagenomic and mass spectrometry data to provide a risk-informed value for the survivability of microbes from cleanrooms and spacecraft surfaces. Our innovative approach will modernize PP toolkits, provide more flexibility and increased efficiency to ESA mission teams when implementing PP inside industrial organizations while fulfilling ESA’s corporate obligations to conduct responsible and sustainable space explorations. Join us in this bold journey to redefine PP and ensure a safe and sustainable future in space exploration.
