This
work is apart of ESA/EU SURE project aiming to quantify the survival
probability of fungal spores in space under solar irradiation
in the VUV spectral region. The contribution and impact of VUV
photons, vacuum, low temperature and their synergies on the survival
probability of Aspergillus terreus spores is measured at simulated
space conditions on Earth. To simulate the solar VUV irradiation,
the spores are irradiated with a continuous discharge VUV hydrogen
photon source and a molecular fluorine laser, at low and high
photon intensities at 1015photons m-2 s-1
and 3.9X1027 photons pulse-1 m-2
s-1, respectively.
|