Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in ... - The Black Vault

Exploring the Unknown 747
surface features of the rock due to the awkward manipulations which are performed.
We therefore recommend that Apollo 13 samples used for the biological protocol
be restricted to a much smaller portion of the returned samples. An aliquot of the
lower portion of the drill core and one soil sample might be adequate. As presently
planned, both of these samples could come from the ALSRC containing the drill
core section. The second ALSRC, and sample returned in other containers, need
not be involved in the biological protocol.
Lunar-Planetary Quarantine Relationship
There are important long-range benefits to be gained from Apollo
quarantine experience. Perhaps within two decades manned missions will
explore Mars and perhaps other space objectives about which we have little
biologically significant information. At this time it seems advisable for NASA to
plan to establish and implement a quarantine policy applicable to those more
ambitions missions on the assumption that the back-contamination risks, with
respect to Mars at least, will continue to be much greater than was ever thought
to be the case for the earth’s moon. We believe that the recommendations of the
1964 Conference on Potential hazards of back-contamination from the Planets
continue to apply to the planning for a manned Mars mission. In this connection
it would be valuable for NASA to document its Apollo quarantine experience in
such a manner that a future generation of planners can benefit maximally from
what was learned during Apollo. Substantial savings in the cost of quarantine,
avoidance of compromises and more effective communication between design
engineers and those responsible for biomedical aspects of quarantine policy and
procedures would be facilitated by an enlightened accounting of the many lessons
which are being learned in the course of the lunar quarantine program.
*Space Science Board, National Academy of Sciences, 29-30 July 1964. Revised 19 February 1965.
15pp.
Biological Testing Program
In the course of our meeting we studied the design and results of biological
tests performed with lunar samples and visited the biological laboratories of the
Lunar Receiving Laboratory. Each specialist had reason to comment upon the
design, conduct and results of these biological tests. An absence of direct testing
methods such as microscopy scanning was noted. We found complete agreement
with our views by resident scientists. The biological lunar testing program has raised
many fundamental questions about the selection of host organisms and culture
media, rout of inoculation with lunar material, incubation period and temperature,
control samples and test procedures that we feel warrant immediate attention.
We recommend a continuing research effort at LRL to develop a
wide based biological testing program, expanded to include other competent
biological laboratories, with sufficient diversity not only to maximize the chance of
positive findings but also to validate negative findings through adequate controls,
particularly those inoculated with material known to be capable of infecting the
host or culture.