At least in the world of Space Science as reported by Space.com.
Not-so-clean rooms: Scientists discover 26 new microbe species in NASA spacecraft facility
It doesn't quite convey the entire message written that way. So let me try it a little more directly:
Scientists discover 26 new microbe species in NASA Clean Room
The clean room is used to ensure spacecraft don't bring Earth microbes to
other planets. And they find 26 new species that can survive the conditions intended to kill them off before flight?
Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, along with researchers in India and Saudi Arabia, have discovered 26 previously unknown bacterial species in the clean rooms that were used to prep NASA's Phoenix Mars lander for its August 2007 launch.
Clean rooms are intensely controlled environments designed to prevent Earth's microbes from hitching a ride to other planets and contaminating them with our life. The constant battle, though, is with some microorganisms, known as extremophiles, that show impressive resilience in inhospitable environments, whether that's the vacuum of space, hydrothermal vents on the slopes of undersea volcanoes, or even NASA clean rooms. (BTW, you have got to click on that extremophiles link so you can see "Conan the Bacterium")
"Our study aimed to understand the risk of extremophiles being transferred in space missions and to identify which microorganisms might survive the harsh conditions of space," study team member Alexandre Rosado, a researcher at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, said in a statement.
"This effort is pivotal for monitoring the risk of microbial contamination and safeguarding against unintentional colonization of exploring planets," Rosado added.
When the concept of extremophiles comes up, it's natural to want to understand how they survive things that kill other life forms, much like you'd want to know why a bug spray you're using for creepy crawly insects doesn't work, or stops working as some insect extremophiles are selected for.
These hardy microbes may also offer insights that could benefit life on Earth. The scientists performed genetic research on samples gathered from the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, one of the last stops for Phoenix before its launch from neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (then known as Cape Canaveral Air Force Station).
They found 53 strains that they determined belonged to 26 novel species. And they dug into the genomes of these newfound extremophiles, looking for clues that could help explain their extraordinary survivability. The keys might be in genes linked to DNA repair, detoxification of harmful substances and boosted metabolism, according to the team.
NASA's Phoenix Mars lander undergoes a test before its August 2007 launch. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA/Lockheed Martin)
While it seems these newly discovered species could help improve applications in medicine, food preservation and more, most importantly it seems they could help NASA improve their basic mission of not spreading Earth's microbes around the solar system.
Hmmmmmmmmmm...............
ReplyDeleteWhy is it a BAD thing to spread life to our other planets??
(Playing Devils Advocate here)
Just spitballing here, but this idea got started in the '60s (as always - IIRC). I used to think it was because of the practical reason that we spend $XX millions to search for life and and we don't want to detect things we brought to Planet X with us. A "we don't want to fool ourselves" reasoning.
DeleteNow it's expanded and I know there's a group I've seen trying to keep us from going to explore. Because we're not socialist enough. There are Woke NASA scientists who think ‘exploration’ is ‘problematic’ and oppose missions to any other planets.
NASA’s Equity Diversity and Inclusion Working Group (EDIWG) publishes an anti-capitalist, anti-colonialist manifesto which, if followed, would effectively ban the USA from exploration of Mars, our Moon and other planetary bodies. After all, our “extractive capitalism” approach could interfere with evolution of microbes on lifeless worlds. From 2020.
Wait. "interfere with evolution of microbes on lifeless worlds"?? Interfere with the evolution of ... nothing? Which makes me think of places with no atmosphere, hard vacuum of space and enough radiation to to be sterilized.
Then there's this one from 2018 that lays out the same arguments that we have no right to explore.
Excuse the Heck out of me...but the oxymoronic practices that made THIS sentence possible could be Hilarious if only it wasn't factual:
Delete"There are Woke NASA scientists who think ‘exploration’ is ‘problematic’ and oppose missions to any other planets."
First question is, unless these "scientist" purpose in life is to crash and burn an organization they hate, why did they seek employment at NASA?
Second question, when NASA found out what these "scientists'" true objective was, why were they not fired for cause along with a lawsuit to cover any and all damages done on their watch?
Some things make me wonder if this society can survive the help of the woke.
MSG Grumpy
Since they're both several years old, we don't know if they're gone now. The second one (2020) is definitely from the Age of Woke, but the first one (2018) is probably someone who had been in NASA since the Obama days. Go look at the picture of the woman in the middle pic in 2018. Nose ring and tattoos kind of scream woke, and the story seems like she's in the business of promoting herself for the National Geographic TV show she was in. She went to NASA to get some street cred for her show.
DeleteThe Leftists have an issue that space exploration takes money away from welfare payments and may lead to *horrors* Colonization.
DeleteSiG, this is pretty interesting.
ReplyDeleteWe routinely use Class A manufacturing environments (equivalent to a ISO 5 environment, Less than 3520 0.5 micron sized particles per cubic meter of air and less than 20 5 micron sized particles per cubic meter of air) as well as plating of surfaces and operator gloves. For the plating greater than 1 colony is considered a deviation of some sort.
The article does not seem to give a lot of detail on the NASA cleanrooms. I wonder what their environmental controls are.
My only experience with that is more like the particle limits used in the semiconductor manufacturing. They have different classes set by the number of particles that could mess up the features on an integrated circuit, but it has been since the early '90s that I worked in (what I recall as) a "class 100" clean room, which is pretty low grade clean. Wear a lab coat, N95 type face mask, don't touch hardware bare handed, simple things like that.
DeleteSiG - We gown up into scrubs, dedicated plant shoes, shoe covers, sterile gloves, then enter the gowning room where a sterile mask, new set of sterile gloves, sterile hood, sterile gowning (think coveralls with a zipper in the front), sterile boots, sterile goggles, and a second set of sterile gloves - then enter the room.
DeletePerhaps for NASA this was just not a consideration before.
The mission requirements probably differ, too. I was working on a weather satellite going up here. Going to live in a hard vacuum in MEO.
DeleteSpeaking in the biology of weeds. An invasive species is one SO Successful in overcoming the limits of the local flora that they local flora is endangered and or eliminated.
ReplyDeleteKudzu and Japanese Knotweed spring to mind.
Wonder if unintended consequences might be in play someday?
Unintended consequences refer to outcomes of a purposeful action that are not foreseen or intended. They can be categorized into three main types:
Positive: Unforeseen benefits that result from a specific action1.
Negative: Unexpected drawbacks or problems that arise from actions1.
Perverse: Actions that lead to results contrary to the intended goal
I assume that if there is no local flora, anything we bring that can survive becomes dominant. That proviso "that can survive" is the big one. Take a plant: they get nutrients from the soil - which came from the decay of other life. What if it's sterile? No life to decay so no nutrients in the soil. If we brought kudzu to Mars, I assume it couldn't survive.
DeleteAlgae? Protozoans? I don't know.
Actually, being Humancentric I was pondering the Andromeda Strain, and we get smurfed.
DeleteThe movie Andromeda Strain! That was very well done, remember the Sterno guy, Burgess Meredith like character? Anyways read this piece few days ago and first time in a couple decades remember the movie and how it was actually kind of chilling, I mean who knew one way or another.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked for a defense contractor, part of my job was to cut and fit plastic shims for a lens assembly. (Corona Project) This included using a razor blade to scrape the burrs on the edges of the plastic. True, this was off to the side, not in the primary air flow.
ReplyDelete