Sorry, didn't state that properly, too late at night. The entry vehicle is usually stored so that nothing on the exterior is exposed. The actual requirement is that no uncontrolled particle (i.e. something that falls off the entry vehicle) that large is able to enter the biosphere.
Sorry, probably should have done that. I worked on a project for school with Jet Propulsion Labs in Pasadena, and one of the documents (unfortunately I don't have them with me right now so I can't give you a title) has very strict guidelines on planetary contamination procedures both for other planets (don't want to contaminate the Mars biosphere, if there is one, before we can study it), and even stricter for our own biosphere.
As for making policy off of sci-fi, it was a joke thats almost true. Its true that it probably wasnt as a direct result of the novel, but certainly science/engineering and science fiction are interdependent on one another, and one of science fictions most important purposes, besides basic entertainment, is either warning or inspiration, depending on the case.
NASA/JPL requirements for an earth entry vehicle thats returning any kind of sample are very strict. They require that there be less than a 10^-6 chance of a particle larger than 2 nanometers entering the earth atmosphere.
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Sorry, didn't state that properly, too late at night. The entry vehicle is usually stored so that nothing on the exterior is exposed. The actual requirement is that no uncontrolled particle (i.e. something that falls off the entry vehicle) that large is able to enter the biosphere.
Sorry, probably should have done that. I worked on a project for school with Jet Propulsion Labs in Pasadena, and one of the documents (unfortunately I don't have them with me right now so I can't give you a title) has very strict guidelines on planetary contamination procedures both for other planets (don't want to contaminate the Mars biosphere, if there is one, before we can study it), and even stricter for our own biosphere. As for making policy off of sci-fi, it was a joke thats almost true. Its true that it probably wasnt as a direct result of the novel, but certainly science/engineering and science fiction are interdependent on one another, and one of science fictions most important purposes, besides basic entertainment, is either warning or inspiration, depending on the case.
NASA/JPL requirements for an earth entry vehicle thats returning any kind of sample are very strict. They require that there be less than a 10^-6 chance of a particle larger than 2 nanometers entering the earth atmosphere.
Those NASA administrators read Crichton too.