Diversity and resistance of microorganisms in a European spacecraft testing clean room

Abstract

This thesis is part of ESA’s effort to advance Europe’s employed planetary protection policy to avoid unwanted contamination of our solar bodies due to mankind’s spaceflight program. Consequently the biological contamination of each spacecraft is monitored and, if necessary, reduced before launch. Therefore, the goal of this thesis was to identify and analyse the contamination level and phylogenetic diversity present in a European class 100,000 clean room (no more than 100k particles larger than 5 μm per foot³). In addition, the physiological properties of the cultivable bacteria collected from inside the facility were examined to identify possible changes in the bacterial characteristics due to the selective conditions present in such an environment. To achieve these goals three lines of work have been pursued.