Re: Fungal strains in space spark worry - we might have already contaminated --

Le 2026-05-07 à 13:47, Jim Wilkins a écrit :
> "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
> 

A fine balance must be made between total sterilization and survival of 
the instrument.
No point sterilizing the probe when doing so also destroys it.