Yesterday, I received confirmation from Bob Jacobs, NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Communications, that science operations on Curiosity would continue as normal with participation of the DAN team.

"The limitation is in regards to NASA interaction with members of the Russian Federation—official government employees," said Jacobs. "We don't believe the science from Curiosity will be impacted by this guidance."

"The guidance is specific about bilateral meetings and even then it has to involve official members of the Russian government before it's a problem," he added.

Russian scientists have also contributed a similar experiment on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND), which should also be unaffected by the ban.

On Thursday, the White House provided some clarification of the original memo. According to Marcia Smith of Space Policy Online: