Dec 18, 9:58 PM

Lab tests germs as Mars trip hitchhikers

BY CHRIS KRIDLER
FLORIDA TODAY

CAPE CANAVERAL -- In a University of Florida lab at Kennedy Space Center, bacteria are giving their tiny lives so spacecraft won't contaminate Mars and other destinations.
Researcher Andrew Schuerger cooks the microbes with ultraviolet radiation like that experienced on Mars. He also drops the air pressure to simulate Mars' atmosphere, and they don't like it one bit.

Though spacecraft are assembled in extremely clean conditions, all have microbial hitchhikers, which he calls a "bioload."

"The model is suggesting that the bioload that's launched is not going to have an easy time in the whole transit to Mars and once it gets to Mars," he said.

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