The lower the rating, the cleaner the facility. An alternate method, used since Viking, relies on vaporized hydrogen peroxide, which can be applied at lower temperatures, yet still kills microbes effectively. If an orbiter or lander accidentally strikes its target, something known as an inadvertent impact in NASA-speak, these encapsulated microbes could be released, foiling the mission’s planetary protection efforts. Well, as more missions came online, we got better at planetary protection. As with most activities, the more you prep, the easier the task is to complete. Then, after launch, they track the vessel carefully and, as they get more confident that it’s on course and responding well, they begin correcting the trajectory slowly over time. We found ourselves having to apply two applications for the more gooey stains, and even then, we noticed a faint orange color left behind. In May 1969, just two months before Apollo 11 would carry the first humans to walk on another celestial body, Crichton published “The Andromeda Strain,” a cautionary tale about dangerous microorganisms carried to Earth on a spacecraft.

By August 1969, after intense biological and chemical analysis, LRL officials declared the lunar samples free of lunar microorganisms and released them from quarantine. And analysis of the lunar samples was halted at one point when workers feared that the vacuum chamber glove box might have a leak. After all, when the Columbia Command Module splashed into the Pacific Ocean, no safeguards were in place to capture a pesky microbe that might have somehow survived re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. When the Columbia Command Module splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969, a recovery crew jumped from a helicopter to the floating spacecraft. All three astronauts received a bleach-based sponge bath and then waited as the member of the recovery crew wiped down the hatch and the exhaust vents of the command module with iodine solution. Let’s start with the astronauts. Then an airplane carried it to Houston, where a waiting truck whisked the astronauts to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory, or LRL. NASA’s approach addressed three main concerns: the returning spacecraft, the astronauts and any samples carried back. Then the people on the helicopter hoisted the astronauts out of the water and carried them to the deck of the USS Hornet.

Once the astronauts sealed themselves safely within their protective garments, the command module hatch was reopened, and they climbed aboard one of the rafts. After attaching a flotation collar to the craft and inflating rafts, one of the crew members opened the hatch to the module, passed over three biological isolation garments (BIGs) and quickly resealed the hatch. After rinsing them with sterile water, handlers passed the ALSRCs through a vacuum lock into the main vacuum chamber glove box. The vacuum cleaner does a great job at cleaning. It will work with cleaning foams and sprays and is the perfect complement to any shoe cleaning kit. If they ever lose contact with the spacecraft and can no longer control it, they know it will be far less likely to make an inadvertent impact with the target body. Here’s how it works: First, flight engineers aim the spacecraft so it will miss its target by hundreds or even thousands of kilometers. But first, do some research to ensure that you’re not removing anything integral to your user experience. Around 3,000 B.C., the Kemite pharaoh Menes was documented as the first person to conduct research into poisons. Handlers at the lab sterilized the outside of the suitcases by first exposing them to ultraviolet light and then washing them in peracetic acid, a biocide typically used in food and beverage environments.

It is restricted from use in aquatic areas, construction of beehives, or any application associated with the packaging of food or feed. 2. It is for this reason that the so-called “mass defect” associated with nuclear reaction corresponds to a large amount of energy relative to that observed by a reaction involving strictly electrons. Before workers bake the vessel, they encase it in a large ceramic sheath — something resembling CorningWare — to help protect delicate components. NASA, of course, had already worked hard to develop stringent planetary protection guidelines by then, but it redoubled its efforts to help soothe public concerns. The Viking missions of the mid-1970s were just as important for planetary protection as the Apollo ones, and led to the development of many techniques still used today. For example, NASA officials implemented strict crew quarantine rules for the early Apollo missions because they didn’t know whether or not lunar microbes existed. Up next, we’ll see how NASA battles all those contamination risks. There, a plastic tunnel was placed between the command module and the quarantine facility so lunar samples and film shot during the mission could be transferred to the MQF without fear of contamination.