Discussion of a possible contamination of space with terrestrial life.
Theoretical considerations were made on what forces and energies affect a particle the size of a microorganism near the Earth and what conditions result for the particle. A transfer of terrestrial life to other celestial bodies seems impossible unless it is done by a spacecraft. This possibility cannot be excluded even after sterilization of the spacecraft on Earth, for in higher layers of the atmosphere the spacecraft could be contaminated again. In this case microorganisms would be subjected to a space flight where decompression is much slower initially than is the case on leaving the Earth's surface with the spacecraft. With these considerations, experiments on microorganisms were carried out in a vacuum chamber. For testing the effect of vacuum on the rate of desorption, mainly of water, measurement was made by a mass spectrometer. In the experiments the decompression rate was varied and different microbiological forms were used, namely, spores and vegetative cells of different cell wall structures. Further experiments in the ultrahigh-vacuum range are necessary and the problems involved are discussed.
Bucker
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Arbeitsgruppe fur biophysikalische Weltraumforschung, Universitat Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
Horneck
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D001274:Atmospheric Pressure; D001412:Bacillus subtilis; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D003264:Containment of Biohazards; D003890:Desiccation; D018534:Earth, Planet; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D004926:Escherichia coli; D018559:Exobiology; D005118:Extraterrestrial Environment; D010316:Particle Size; D018561:Space Simulation; D018531:Spacecraft; D013171:Spores, Bacterial; D014618:Vacuum