Why when working on something like satellites, space rovers etc does everyone have to wear gear as if working with diseased patients?
In: Engineering
because the precision electronics used in those are sensitive enough that even a single hair or errant particile can disable it if it ends up where it shouldnt.
and since these machines cost millions ot develop and arguably just as much to get into space you want ot make sure they WILL work as expected
there is another reason, whih is the same reason we are very paranoid to collect items that came from outerspace: cross contamination, if you happen ot come across antoher celestial body that for all you know may harbor alien life, last thnig you want is ot infect it with our earthborne pathogens, or their alien pathogens infecting us, which could lead ot Ecological disasters.
The equipment used can be very sensitive to things like dust or dirt. Getting some dust in a connector, bearing or on some equipment can prevent them from working properly. Best case it will get discovered before launch and you have to disassemble the craft, clean it and then reassemble it costing valuable money and time. Especially for interplanetary crafts that have tight windows when the planets alligns for a launch this can cause the project to be canceled. In the worst case it will not be discovered before launch and cause a failure which can not be fixed after launch.
But maybe more importantly we try a lot to prevent other planets and moons from getting contaminated with our lifeforms. If you get some bacteria on Mars for instance it might be able to thrive on the planet. If we then later find signs of life on Mars we do not know if it came frome Earth on a probe or if it came naturally somehow. And if there were already life on Mars it could have gotten eradicated by the bacteria from Earth that we brought. There was an issue for Apollo 12 when they visited the site of an earlier rover mission and retrieved samples containing Earth bacteria, however because the Apollo 12 itself was not free of germs they do not know if the bacteria came from the rover or the spacecraft. It is highly unlikely but it might also have been on the Moon to start with and we have no way of knowing.
2 reasons, depending on the specific spacecraft. The first reason applies to all spacecraft, which is that you’ve built something that costs hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars with extremely sensitive equipment and no way to repair it once in space. You need to avoid getting any dust or grease or particles of any kind on it. Even touching a spacecraft with an ungloved hand can leave skin oils that can cause problems. A bit of hair or dust could block a crucial part like an antenna or solar panel from unfolding. You need to keep spacecraft as clean as possible.
The second reason applies to spacecraft going to planets or moons that could potentially harbor life, which is that we don’t want to contaminate these places with microbes from Earth. The spacecraft are sterilized as best as possible, and it’s crucial to keep them that way. Humans are absolutely covered in bacteria and other microorganisms, and it’s essential to keep them from getting on the spacecraft.
They work in clean room environments because that’s how sensitive the parts are. The electronics can be fouled from things like fingernails or skin oils.
There are a lot of metals that can experience corrosion from a fingerprint. We don’t want something important to fall apart in space where it’s that much harder to fix it.
NASA has a zero contamination policy. They dont want human germs or whatever going to other planets.
When it costs you a billion dollars to boost something out of Earth’s gravity, you don’t want somebody’s errant fingernail clipping fouling up the works is why. That sucker has to work.
They don’t want to contaminate extraterrestrial surfaces with Earth based micro organisms. So they wear PPE like clothing, work in clean rooms, and go through extreme lengths to ensure sanitation.
Imagine having a rover that gets to Mars and detects bacterial life, then we find out it came from here and was just on the rover when we sent it. Or discovering life and having our micro organisms that hitch hiked on the rover interact and kill it before we can study it.
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