UV Reflectance of Spacecraft Materials and Mars Soils for Bioburden Modeling

15 spacecraft materials and seven Mars analog soils were examined for UV reflectance to inform microbial survival models. The overall average UVC reflectance from spacecraft materials was approximately 10%, while from Mars analog soils it was 1.3%. This dataset, authored by Andrew C. Schuerger from the University of Florida, was used to predict sterilization times for the Perseverance rover.

Use Cases

• Modeling lethal UV dosage for spacecraft sterilization based on material reflectance data.
• Predicting Sterility Assurance Level (SAL) achievement times for rover surfaces based on UV reflectance.
• Informing Mars Sample Return mission architecture by assessing bioburden reduction on hardware.

Strengths

• Includes measurements from 15 distinct spacecraft materials.
• Provides reflectance data for seven different Mars analog soils.
• Reports specific UVC reflectance percentages: ~10% for materials and 1.3% for soils.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

University of Florida

Collection Method

Laboratory measurements of UV reflectance.

Geography

Jezero Crater, Mars (analog context)