Protecting the Martian environment from contamination with terrestrial microbes is generally seen as essential to the scientific exploration of Mars, especially when it comes to the search for indigenous life. However, while companies and space agencies aim at getting to Mars within ambitious timelines, the state-of-the-art planetary protection measures are only applicable to uncrewed spacecraft. With this paper, we attempt to reconcile these two conflicting goals: the human exploration of Mars and its protection from biological contamination. In our view, the one nominal mission activity that is most prone to introducing terrestrial microbes into the Martian environment is when humans leave their habitat to explore the Martian surface, if one were to use state-of-the-art airlocks. We therefore propose to adapt airlocks specifically to the goals of planetary protection. We suggest a concrete concept for such an adapted airlock, believing that only practical and implementable solutions will be followed by human explorers in the long run.

保护火星环境免受陆地微生物污染通常被认为对于火星科学探索至关重要，特别是在寻找本土生命方面。然而，尽管公司和航天机构的目标是在雄心勃勃的时间内到达火星，但最先进的行星保护措施仅适用于无人航天器。通过这篇论文，我们试图调和这两个相互冲突的目标：人类探索火星和保护火星免受生物污染。我们认为，最容易将陆地微生物引入火星环境的一项名义任务活动是当人类离开栖息地探索火星表面时，如果使用最先进的气闸的话。因此，我们建议专门针对行星保护的目标调整气闸室。我们为这种经过改造的气闸提出了一个具体的概念，相信从长远来看，人类探险家只会遵循实用且可实施的解决方案。