As mankind sets out to walk on future other planets and boldly go where no man has gone before, he will have to take precautions as to not contaminate his habitat or space capsule. Now some may say this is silly what on Earth are you worried about? Well, I would say to them, first here on Earth few things should worry us. Ebola and things of that nature should, but we are not talking about Earth or the Moon or even Mars for that matter; no I am talking about the future of Space Exploration and the ramifications involved with it. We need to protect life from any unknown pathogens, viruses or diseases that our evolutionary track has not come to terms with here on Earth. I propose designing a ventilation system, which will blow the dust off of the space suits and into filters, similar to a clean room contamination air blower. The membranes in the air system will collect all that dust and perhaps use them as samples. Each membrane will then be used to recover samples in the lab. The space lab area should be adjacent the airlock entry area to the membranes will be exactly where they need to be and the two rooms will be isolated from the rest of ship. Each membrane will be on a wheel and will be removable and replaceable as it spins into the lab, where it will be safe to study without contaminating the rest of the colony, ship or space station. Think on this in 2006. |
