Planetary protection, legal ambiguity and the decision making process for Mars sample return.

As scientists and mission planners develop planetary protection requirements for future Mars sample return missions, they must recognize the socio-political context in which decisions about the mission will be made and pay careful attention to public concerns about potential back contamination of Earth. To the extent that planetary protection questions are unresolved or unaddressed at the time of an actual mission, they offer convenient footholds for public challenges in both legal and decision making realms, over which NASA will have little direct control. In this paper, two particular non-scientific areas of special concern are discussed in detail: 1) legal issues and 2) the decision making process. Understanding these areas is critical for addressing legitimate public concerns as well as for fulfilling procedural requirements regardless whether sample return evokes public controversy. Legal issues with the potential to complicate future missions include: procedural review under National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA); uncertainty about institutional control and authority; conflicting regulations and overlapping jurisdictions; questions about international treaty obligations and large scale impacts; uncertanities about the nature of the organism; and constitutional and regulatory concerns about quarantine, public health and safety. In light of these important legal issues, it is critical that NASA consider the role and timing of public involvement in the decision making process as a way of anticipating problem areas and preparing for legitimate public questions and challenges to sample return missions.

Risk management. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Interim rule adopted as final with changes.

This is a final rule amending the NASA FAR Supplement (NFS) to emphasize considerations of risk management, including safety, security (including information technology security), health, export control, and damage to the environment, within the acquisition process. This final rule addresses risk management within the context of acquisition planning, selecting sources, choosing contract type, structuring award fee incentives, administering contracts, and conducting contractor surveillance.

Public school teachers in the U.S. evaluate the educational impact of student space experiments launched by expendable vehicles, aboard Skylab, and aboard Space Shuttle.

Space education is a discipline that has evolved at an unprecedented rate over the past 25 years. Although program proceedings, research literature, and historical documentation have captured fragmented pieces of information about student space experiments, the field lacks a valid comprehensive study that measures the educational impact of sounding rockets, Skylab, Ariane, AMSAT, and Space Shuttle. The lack of this information is a problem for space educators worldwide which led to a national study with classroom teachers. Student flown experiments continue to offer a unique experiential approach to teach students thinking and reasoning skills that are imperative in the current international competitive environment in which they live and will work. Understanding the history as well as the current status and educational spin-offs of these experimental programs strengthens the teaching capacity of educators throughout the world to develop problem solving skills and various higher mental processes in the schools. These skills and processes enable students to use their knowledge more effectively and efficiently long after they leave the classroom. This paper focuses on student space experiments as a means of motivating students to meet this educational goal successfully.

NASA strategic planning for 2000 and beyond.

This short paper outlines the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration's development of its 2000 Strategic Plan.