Re: Fungal strains in space spark worry - we might have already contaminated --
"Jim Wilkins" <[email protected]> Thu, 7 May 2026 13:47:19 -0400
| Newsgroups | alt.astronomy,rec.aviation.military,ca.politics,fl.politics |
|---|---|
| Organization | A noiseless patient Spider |
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
"a425couple" wrote in message news:[email protected]... NASA found fungal strains that survive even its most stringent sterilization efforts, suggesting Earth microbes may already be living on Mars. --------------------------------- NASA has to balance sterilization conditions with survival of the delicate instruments. The more effective chemicals like ozone and chlorine dioxide are corrosive. They sterilize at 125C, the top of the military range, which is above boiling and at or slightly above pressure cooking temperature. 80C is usually assumed to sterilize food, usually 65C is considered adequate. 125C is the high end of the heat tolerance for electronics. Some simpler parts can handle 150C. I've worked in the testing field and have made a transistor fail in a few minutes by operating it at 180C. High temperature shortens component life and is used to estimate and test long predicted lifetimes, but heat stressing the parts you intend to use can degrade them, so it's done on small representative batches of a production run. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_life_testing Autoclaves that sterilize medical instruments operate between 121C and 135C. https://tuttnauer.com/knowledge-center/sterile-processing/autoclave/autoclave-temperature-range-for-effective-sterilization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_temperature