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The Validation of Vapor Phase Hydrogen Peroxide Microbial Reduction for Planetary Protection and a Proposed Vacuum Process SpecificationThe Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in conjunction with the NASA Planetary Protection Officer, has selected the vapor phase hydrogen peroxide sterilization process for continued development as a NASA approved sterilization technique for spacecraft subsystems and systems. The goal is to include this technique, with an appropriate specification, in NPR 8020.12C as a low temperature complementary technique to the dry heat sterilization process.To meet microbial reduction requirements for all Mars in-situ life detection and sample return missions, various planetary spacecraft subsystems will have to be exposed to a qualified sterilization process. This process could be the elevated temperature dry heat sterilization process (~115 C for 40 hours) which was used to sterilize the Viking lander spacecraft. However, with utilization of such elements as highly sophisticated electronics and sensors in modern spacecraft, this process presents significant materials challenges and is thus an undesirable bioburden reduction method to design engineers. The objective of this work is to introduce vapor hydrogen peroxide (VHP) as an alternative to dry heat microbial reduction to meet planetary protection requirements.The VHP process is widely used by the medical industry to sterilize surgical instruments and biomedical devices, but high doses of VHP may degrade the performance of flight hardware, or compromise material properties. Our goal for this study was to determine the minimum VHP process conditions to achieve microbial reduction levels acceptable for planetary protection.
Document ID
20080008526
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Other
External Source(s)
Authors
Chung, Shirley
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Barengoltz, Jack
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Kern, Roger
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Koukol, Robert
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Cash, Howard
(Steris Corp. Mentor, OH, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
October 1, 2006
Subject Category
Aerospace Medicine
Report/Patent Number
JPL Publication 06-6
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
planetary protection
spacecraft design, testing, and performance
spacecraft sterilization

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