The COSPAR Panel on Planetary Protection Show affiliations

International audienceThe international standard for planetary protection has been developed by the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) which provides a forum for internationalconsultation and has formulated a Planetary Protection Policy with associated requirements that are put in place after examination of the most updated relevant scientificstudies and recommendations made by the COSPAR Panel on Planetary Protection [1]. The COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy, and its associated requirements, is notlegally binding under international law but it is an internationally agreed standard with implementation guidelines for compliance with Article IX of the Outer Space Treaty. States Parties to the Outer Space Treaty are responsible for national space activities under Article VI, including the activities of governmental and non-governmental entities. It is the State that ultimately will be held responsible for wrongful acts committed by its jurisdictional subjects. The current members of the COSPAR Panel on Planetary Protection are thematic experts from the science community of different countries (e.g. China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation and the United States) and representatives from their national space agencies and other stakeholders for a total of about 20 members (co-authors of this article [2]). The structure and composition of the panel can be found at the COSPAR web site dedicated page: https://cosparhq.cnes.fr/scientific-structure/ppp. The COSPAR Panel on Planetary Protection maintains and updates the COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy, and its associated requirements, regularly in various ways. For instance, when a space mission is being developed, the project team may present a request to the PPP with a specific combination of mission architecture or targets. In other cases, newscientific results have come forward showing that there is a need for a change or an adaptation/update of some part of the policy. In all cases, the Panel will review all available scientific knowledge through existing or commandeered studies performed by a group or committee of experts who review the information and make a recommendation to the Panel. Following recent developements, the COSPAR Policy on Planetary Protection has been updated [3,4]. Workshops, dedicated scientific and technical meetings and independent peer review are all integral part in updating the COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy, and its associated requirements. Taking these documented inputs into account, the Panel will recommend (or not) to the COSPAR Bureau and Council possible modifications to the policy. Such updates are done in a careful and balanced way to ensure that the right measures are envisaged to fulfil the rationales for planetary protection. The purpose obviously is to respond to the needs of space missions, while applying due diligence and expertise in the process. At the end the updated Policy is published. We will describe the most recent work of the Panel and the current processes in place