Dr. Suresh Pillai has received a grant of more than $900,000 from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory to study using electron beam irradiation to sterilize spacecraft components. His partner in the project is Dr. Lee Braby in the Texas A&M Department of Nuclear Engineering. Dr. Pillai notes that deep space missions must be properly sterilized to distinguish between organisms brought from Earth and those that may be indigenous to other planetary bodies. He adds that electron beam irradiation may be a better method than the current dry heat method since the dry heat method can degrade certain adhesives, circuit boards, and polymers. This research will also benefit the poultry industry by improving our understanding of bacterial and virus destruction and helping the development of better sterilization methods for materials like food and animal waste.

(12/06/04)