From request to review
Define the bounded proposal
For return a extraterrestrial sample, record the requester, location, scope and responsible receiving office. The receipt identifies the clock and competent jurisdiction.
Gate: Location and competence are recorded
Owner: Planetary Protection AuthorityReview methods and raw evidence
Assess sample provenance; reconcile it with containment tests and custody and receiving facility. A missing document has an explicit alternative-evidence route rather than silent rejection.
Gate: Evidence is complete or an alternative is agreed
Owner: Planetary Protection AuthorityObtain independent specialist findings
Ask Customs & Border Services Agency for the finding within its own powers. The consultation records the specific unresolved question, evidence version and requested response.
Gate: A specialist finding is recorded
Owner: Customs & Border Services AgencyResolve protection and future burdens
Research access does not authorize irreversible release Publish or privately communicate the resolution, including dissent and consent limits.
Gate: The stated safeguard is resolved
Owner: Science & Discovery CommissionIssue a conditional research decision
A contained return-sample review with custody requirements. The decision also names the accountable official role, effective event, conditions, review office and follow-up duties.
Gate: Reasons, conditions and review route are available
Owner: Planetary Protection AuthorityMonitor stop conditions and review
Preserve the source record, decision reasons and conditions for return a extraterrestrial sample. A service complaint routes to the Ombudsman; a contested legal restriction routes to the Union Court.
Gate: Follow-up owner and record custody are named
Owner: Union Ombudsman
Exceptions and alternate routes
Required evidence is unavailable
Record the missing item and propose a witness, existing register reference or independently verified substitute. The completeness review remains open.
Interplanetary communication is interrupted
Record local receipt time and the delegated action available. Preserve a mirrored log for later reconciliation; do not invent a remote approval.
An adverse finding affects the requester
Provide the finding, allow a response, disclose the review route and preserve essential service continuity where applicable.
Institutional interfaces
Clears cargo, passengers and controlled goods at ports and jurisdictional gateways.
Coordinates accessible care and research across gravity environments and long travel times.
Funds open science while preserving independent peer review and scientific integrity.
Start the record
Prepare a requestThe assessment behind the stage diagram
Protection and gateway teams identify each custody event, verification and receiving acceptance. Laboratory accreditation supports only its actual tested scope.
Containment, source evidence and the receiving laboratory's scope establish the chain. Collection permission alone cannot authorise analysis or opening at an arbitrary facility.
Possible decisions and what follows
A bounded return chain, quarantine handoff, revised receiving plan or reasoned refusal.
Keep transfer logs, containment state, raw evidence and unresolved findings together. Sponsor changes do not remove obligations.
Duties after the finding
Keep the scope accurate
Tell the receiving office about a material change in location, activity, operator, record custodian or requested result. The original receipt remains in the history.
Respect source custody
Provide purpose-specific references and authorised representations. Personal, clinical, commercial and protected scientific records have different access scopes.
Respond to a qualified finding
Read the conditions and the institution that owns them. A request for further evidence identifies the specific unresolved issue and the route for an alternative.
Preserve the follow-up
Keep transfer logs, containment state, raw evidence and unresolved findings together. Sponsor changes do not remove obligations.
Disagreement, assistance and evidence alternatives
A completeness query names the unresolved evidence and the alternative the receiving office can assess. An administrative complaint concerns service handling; a legal appeal concerns a finding and its competent remedy. A public petition asks a representative institution to examine a wider issue.