Please join NASA's Science Mission Directorate for a series of workshops aimed at discussing the priority science goals and Planetary Protection knowledge gaps that NASA should address in advance of human presence on the surface of Mars.

The first, a two-day virtual seminar, “Science and Planetary Protection in Advance of Human Missions Seminar”, will take place on July 31 and August 1, 2024. It will introduce key discussion topics and knowledge gaps, led by community experts and based on the latest available data. We will ask attendees to contribute to brainstorming sessions to identify forward work and potential priorities for the subsequent workshop.

The second, a three-day virtual workshop to be held October 30 – November 1, will collect abstracts from the community to introduce mission concepts, research questions, and considerations based on discussions at the first event. Additional details about the second workshop will be provided as they are available.

Attendees will discuss and develop answers to pertinent questions including:

• What data do we need to collect and what research do we need to conduct to limit harmful contamination of Mars before humans arrive?
• What scientific research needs to be conducted before humans arrive and how will it inform the activities of the human explorers once they are on the surface?
• What research will the crew themselves be doing, and how will forward and backward contamination control be incorporated into those research activities?

We will use results from these workshops to inform future research and mission priorities for the NASA Planetary Protection Office, the Astrobiology Program, and the Mars Exploration Program. This workshop is co-sponsored by the Network for Life Detection (NfoLD), an Astrobiology Research Coordination Network (RCN). We will make a summary of the workshop publicly available.

Find additional information and updates on the event page.

Please send any additional questions to Bob Collom at [email protected].