Lytzen dry heat sterilizer for the European Space Agency (ESA) Mars project, ExoMars.
Lytzen has successfully delivered and tested a new dry heat sterilizer for the ESA Mars project. The purpose of the mission is to search for sign of life on Mars.
Lytzen is very proud to announce, that we have been chosen by ESA, as the requirements for the performance of the dry heat sterilizer is very high and ESA is looking for the state of the art. Lytzen considers this as recognition of our high quality and that we are at the forefront regarding dry heat sterilizers and depyrogenation ovens.
The purpose of the sterilizer is to sterilize equipment before it is sent to Mars, avoiding contamination of the surface of Mars. The UN Outer Space Treaty of 1967 sets up a line of principles applicable to the exploration and use of outer space. As a result of this, equipment for missions to extraterrestrial planets needs to be sterilized to avoid biological contamination.
The dry heat sterilizer itself is made according to the Lytzen quality, well known to the pharmaceutical industry, with ISO class 5 conditions during the entire cycle and with excellent temperature distribution.
The special feature for the ESA-sterilizer is the requirement for low humidity. ESA has by experiments clarified, that humidity has a negative impact on the sterilizing effect at lower temperatures (less than 155° C). As most of the equipment for the Mars mission has to be sterilized at a temperature below this limit, Lytzen was asked to control the humidity down to 0.5g/kg dry air, which is successfully achieved.
ESA will now start to use the sterilizer for material compatibility tests for the ExoMars spacecraft. The Mars mission, is scheduled to launch in 2016.
This activity is performed by Lytzen under contract no. 21.367/08/NL/IA of the European Space Agency.
