Use of a water-boost rocket for the exposure plate method (original) (raw)
Related papers
Development and evaluation of a new personal sampler for culturable airborne microorganisms
Atmospheric Environment, 2002
The objective of this study was to develop a new personal sampler for viable airborne microorganisms and to evaluate its performance under controlled laboratory conditions and in a field. In the sampler, air is bubbled through a porous medium submerged in a liquid layer, as has earlier been demonstrated to be highly efficient for air purification. The prototype had the physical collection efficiency >95% for particles >0.32 mm in aerodynamic diameter during 8 h of continuous operation. The pressure drop across the sampler was below 1700 Pa, much lower than that of most conventional bioaerosol samplers. The collection liquid losses due to evaporation and aerosolization did not exceed 18% in 8 h and the culturability of sampled microorganisms remained high: the recovery rate of stress-sensitive gramnegative P. fluorescens bacteria was 61720%; for stress-resistant B. subtilis bacteria and A. versicolor fungal spores it was 9579% and 9776%, respectively. Six identical personal samplers were tested simultaneously on a simplified human manikin in an office environment. The culturable microbial concentration data obtained during 2, 4 and 8-h sampling were not affected by the sampling time. Inter-sample variation did not exceed 30%. The laboratory and field evaluations have demonstrated that the new sampler is capable of long-term personal sampling of airborne culturable microorganisms. The estimation of the detection limits has indicated that the sampler is capable of monitoring microbial exposure in the environments with the bacterial concentrations above 15 CFU/m 3 and fungal concentrations above 5 CFU/m 3 when using a sampling time of 8 h.
Design, construction, and evaluation of a chamber for aerobiology
Aerobiologia, 1997
A chamber was designed and constructed for aeromicrobiology applications. An ultraviolet (UV) radiation source was incorporated to sterilize the chamber between trials. Twelve bacterial species originally isolated from air samples and obtained from the American Type Culture Collection were tested for efficacy of UV radiation disinfection of the chamber, comprising five Gram-positive bacteria, six Gram-negative and one Gram-variable bacterial species. Experiments were designed to determine time needed to sterilize the chamber walls and air within the chamber after an aerosol containing < 10 s bacteria/1 of air was introduced or suspensions of the microorganisms were placed on surfaces within the chamber. Exposure of surfaces to UV for 120 min was determined to provide sufficient disinfection for reuse of the chamber for aerobiology studies. 9 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.
A Balloon Experiment to Detect Microorganisms in the Outer Space
Fred Hoyle’s Universe, 2003
The results of biological studies of a cryosampler flown with a balloon, in which air samples were collected at altitudes ranging from 20 to 41 km, well above the Tropopause over Hyderabad, are described. In the analysis carried out in Cardiff, voltage-sensitive dyes that could detect the presence of viable cells were used on these air-samples. Clumps of viable cells were found to be present in samples collected at all the altitudes. The images obtained from electron microscopy are consistent with the above finding. Reference is also made to another paper presented at this conference describing the identification of bacterial species in the sample carried out in Sheffield. Counter arguments are discussed against the criticism that the detected cells and microorganisms (in the samples collected above the local tropopause at 16 km) are due to terrestrial contamination.
Collection of Airborne Microorganisms into Liquid by Bubbling through Porous Medium
Aerosol Science and Technology, 2002
A new method for the removal of airborne particles by air bubbling through brous lters immersed into a liquid has recently been developed (Agranovski et al. 1999) and shown to be very efcient for cleaning air environments with ultra-ne aerosol particles. The principal objective of the present study was to evaluate the new bubbling technique for the collection of airborne bacteria into a liquid for subsequent physical and microbiological analysis. It was found that the technique is capable of achieving a physical collection ef ciency of 98.5% or higher for particles larger than 0.3 ¹m in aerodynamic diameter. The physical collection ef ciency of the prototype bubbler remained at that high level for 8 h of continuous operation with negligible variation of the pressure drop across the device. Evaporation of the collection uid did not exceed 20% during 8 h, and the reaerosolization effect on the physical collection ef ciency of the bubbler prototype was <8%. The recovery rate of gram-negative Pseudomonas uorescens bacteria collected for 20 min was shown to be as high as 74% § 10%. Its decrease with time was not statistically signi cant: the recovery rate reached 63% § 15% and 58% § 16% after 4 and 8 h of continuous operation, respectively. Thus the bubbling technique was demonstrated to be suitable for collecting viable airborne bacteria even if they are sensitive to the stress.
A Balloon-Based Payload for Exposing Microorganisms in the Stratosphere (E-MIST)
Gravitational and Space Research, 2014
The survival and transit of microorganisms in Earth's upper atmosphere is relevant to terrestrial ecology and astrobiology, but the topic is understudied due to a scarcity of suitable flight systems. We designed, built, and flew a selfcontained payload, Exposing Microorganisms in the Stratosphere (E-MIST), on a large scientific balloon launched from New Mexico on 24 August 2014. The payload carried Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032, a highly-resilient spore-forming bacterial strain originally isolated from a NASA spacecraft assembly facility. Our test flight evaluated E-MIST functionality in the stratosphere, including microbiological procedures and overall instrument performance. Herein, we summarize features of the E-MIST payload, protocols, and preliminary results that indicate it is possible to conduct a tightlycontrolled microbiological experiment in the stratosphere while collecting pertinent environmental data. Additional studies of this nature may permit survival models for microbes traveling through Earth's harsh upper atmosphere. Moreover, measuring the endurance of spacecraftassociated microbes at extreme altitudes may help predict their response on the surface of Mars.
Launch Excitement with Water Rockets
Science Scope, 2007
While the syringe will function as a rocket even with no moclifications, students enjoy modifying their rockets by adding fins, nose cones, and other decorative and functional enhancements. Each of these will become important later as students test their designs, comparing with each other for outcome variables such as altitude attained, velocity, clistance downrange, acceleration, and even payload capacity. NASA bottle rockets-http:jjexploration.grc.nasa.govj educationjrocket;rktbot. htmI Nerds Incorporated-www.nerdsinc.com Water rocket index-http:jjourworld.compuserve.comj homepagesjpagrossejh2oRocketlndex.htm
A method for sampling microbial aerosols using high altitude balloons
Journal of microbiological methods, 2014
Owing to the challenges posed to microbial aerosol sampling at high altitudes, very little is known about the abundance, diversity, and extent of microbial taxa in the Earth-atmosphere system. To directly address this knowledge gap, we designed, constructed, and tested a system that passively samples aerosols during ascent through the atmosphere while tethered to a helium-filled latex sounding balloon. The sampling payload is ~ 2.7 kg and comprised of an electronics box and three sampling chambers (one serving as a procedural control). Each chamber is sealed with retractable doors that can be commanded to open and close at designated altitudes. The payload is deployed together with radio beacons that transmit GPS coordinates (latitude, longitude and altitude) in real time for tracking and recovery. A cut mechanism separates the payload string from the balloon at any desired altitude, returning all equipment safely to the ground on a parachute. When the chambers are opened, aerosol s...
EC Microbiology, 2018
The study describes the results of a series of comparative experiments aimed at determining the differences in the ability to collect bacteria and fungi colonies by seven different impaction air samplers. The tests were performed simultaneously under identical environmental conditions in a "clean" room routinely used for cell culture or in a biochemistry room generally used for chemical experiments in the microbiological research laboratory of the University of Milan. The air flow in the rooms was switched-off for all the time of the experiments. The seven different air samplers were positioned on a cart, side by side, and operated simultaneously to collect 1m 3 of atmosphere each. The results demonstrated that the numbers of airborne microorganisms impacted on TSA-containing Petri dishes, and grown as single colonies (CFU/m 3), were different for each air sampler, although the difference was not statistically significant. Head to head tests were also performed with two identical TRIO.BAS apparatuses calibrated to 100 or 200 litres of aspirated air per minute. This test aimed at determining if a shorter aspiration time could negatively influence the cell viability and/or the bacterial concentration in the bioaerosol, as determined by counting the number of CFU/m 3. The data ruled out this possibility and suggest that an aspiration time of 200 litres per minute might save time, especially when a repeated air sampling is mandatory for the control of sterility in virology laboratory "clean rooms", pharmaceutical manufacturing areas and surgical rooms in the hospitals.
Aerosol Science and Technology, 2011
By sampling aerosolized microorganisms, the efficiency of a bioaerosol sampler can be calculated depending on its ability both to collect microorganisms and to preserve their culturability during a sampling process. However, those culturability losses in the nonsampling processes should not be counted toward the sampling efficiency. Prior to the efficiency assessment, this study was designed to investigate the culturability losses in three non-sampling processes: (1) the tracer uranine induced loss; (2) the loss during aerosolization (pre-sampling process); and (3) the bacteria and uranine recovery in air sample handling procedures for the samples of the Andersen 6-stage impactor and the Airport MD8 (postsampling process). The results indicated that uranine had no significant effect on the culturability of Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, and Mycoplasma synoviae in suspensions (P > 0.05), but negatively affected the culturability of Campylobacter jejuni (P = 0.01). The culturability of E. faecalis, E. coli, and M. synoviae was not affected by stresses caused by aerosolization (P > 0.05). Only 29% of C. jejuni were still culturable during aerosolization (P = 0.02). In the air sample handling procedures, the four species of bacteria were recovered without significant losses from the samples of the Andersen impactor, but only 33-60% uranine was recovered. E. faecalis, E. coli, and M. synoviae were recovered without significant losses from the samples of the Airport MD8. More C. jejuni was recovered (172%), probably due to multiplication or counting variation.
MODEL OF CHARGE CARRIER ROCKET LOUNCHER ON RESEARCH MEASURING PRESSURE, TEMPERATURE, AND HUMIDITY
Rocket is flying vehicle that can be used for research measuring pressure, temperature and humidity at a certain height. So that the rocket can glide, need a launcher, this paper discusses the creation and testing of two kinds of launchers, the pneumatic system and the fuel system (butane). The test results of the model rocket launcher with a total weight of 1.5 kg can fly as high as up to 7 meters from the runway.