Today Anna and Adrienne did a special spacesuit sterilization experiment. With the discovery of water-altered minerals indicating a watery past on Mars as well and further study of radiation resistant microbes on Earth, interest in finding microbial life on Mars has been piqued. The problem is astronauts are not easy to sterilize.

The process of putting on a spacesuit necessarily leaves microbes all over the exterior of the spacesuit, which presents the potential for accidentally seeding life on the Martian surface. We tested UV sterilization of a spacesuit exterior testing 2 EVA suits from MDRS selecting to sample the forearms, knees, shins, gloves, and collars for microbial growth before and after UV-C irradiation using a hand- held UV lamp.

We tested a total of 20 areas on 2 spacesuits using a range of UV-C dosages (50, 100, and 200 J/m2) at each site streaking swabs on solid LB media. The plates will be incubated overnight and checked tomorrow to see the effects of UV irradiation on microbial contamination on the exterior of EVA suits. It was an excellent chance to merge microbiology together with spacesuit technology as an experiment done with a biologist and an engineer.