Verification of the effects of sterilisation/decontamination procedures on Mars Analogue materials.

在接下来的几十年里，人们希望有几个太空任务能够前往其他行星，如火星，并带回材料。这种任务的潜在风险之一是，返回的材料可能含有现存的生命，这些生命可能与地球上的生命相互作用，可能造成可怕的后果。虽然发生这种事件的可能性非常小，但它可能具有破坏性，因此有必要确保任何返回的材料在抵达地球时都经过完全消毒。人们担心的一个问题是，消毒程序可能会微妙地改变样本，从而阻止研究它们的科学家正确了解返回岩石的真实原始性质。因此，我们正在计划一项研究计划，通过测量与我们期望在火星上发现的岩石相似的岩石的特征，然后对它们进行消毒并重新测量，来研究各种可能的消毒方案（例如辐射）是如何影响岩石的。通过这种方式，我们将能够推荐合适的灭菌程序，而不会在科学上损害它们。

Within the next few decades it is hoped that several space missions will be able to travel to other planets, such as Mars, and bring material back. One of the potential risks of such missions is that the returned material may contain extant life, which could then interact with terrestrial life, with possibly dire consequences. Although the likelihood of such an event occurring is very small, it is potentially so devastating that it is necessary to assure that any returned material is fully sterilised on arrival on Earth. One concern is that the sterilisation procedure may subtly change the samples, and so prevent the scientists who study them from getting the correct picture about the true pristine nature of the returned rock. We are therefore planning a programme of research to investigate how various possible sterilisation protocols (e.g. irradiation) affects rocks, by measuring the characteristics of rocks similar to those we expect to find on mars, then sterilising them and re-measuring them. In this way we will be able to recommend suitable procedures for sterilisation that do not compromise them scientifically.