Microbial protocols for spacecraft: 2. Biocidal effects of Delrin and nylon in sealed compartments may enhance bioburden reductions in planetary spacecraft

Abstract

Interplanetary spacecraft are assembled with thousands of parts composed of many diverse materials. Little is known on whether any of the spacecraft materials are biocidal to the typical microbiomes that develop on spacecraft during pre-launch processing. During ongoing experiments to examine the interactive effects of solar UV irradiation, solar heating, ionizing radiation, and vacuum, we observed that bacterial spores of three Bacillus spp. were killed when incubated within small vacuum chambers for 5 days – without exposure to the aforementioned factors. Eight potential spacecraft materials were tested within the vacuum chambers for biocidal activities against spores of B. atrophaeus ATCC 9372, B. pumilus SAFR-032 and B. subtilis 168. All three species were fully inactivated (i.e., no survivors detected) by machined parts manufactured from Delrin®; a thermoplastic polyacetal polymer. Although not tested here, it is known that Delrin can off-gas formaldehyde, and thus, we hypothesize that this volatile organic compound (VOC) was responsible for the biocidal activity of the material. Knowledge of the biocidal nature of routinely used spacecraft materials might offer diverse methods to inactivate deeply embedded or shielded microbiota within spacecraft via the release of biocidal VOCs.