PASADENA: The Mars 2020 Rover is seen in the spacecraft assembly area clean room Friday during a media tour at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. - AFP

PASADENA: NASA's
Mars 2020 rover will head off for the Red Planet next year. But like Voyager,
Galileo and Cassini before it, the mission's epic journey began in a
"clean room" in California. One of two ultra-sterile labs used for
spacecraft assembly at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, on the
outskirts of Los Angeles, the eggshell-white room was briefly and exceptionally
opened to journalists Friday.

"We need to
keep the hardware as pristine and as safe as possible until we get to
Mars," said David Gruel, operations manager for Mars 2020. The Mars rover
will collect samples on the planet in the search for traces of microbial life
potentially dating back billions of years. Journalists had to go through a
lengthy sterilization process before entering the room "so we actually are
bringing samples back from Mars, and not bringing back hair from my body or
some skin from somebody else's body," explained Gruel.

Automated shoe
brushes and sticky mats remove particles from shoes before guests even reach
the locker room. To prevent contamination, visitors must then don a "bunny
suit" -- sleeves sealed with adhesive tape -- along with face masks, latex
gloves and even beard protectors for the more hirsute.

Finally, they
pass beneath a pulsating "air shower" that blasts away the last
unwanted particles. The rover itself is regularly scrubbed with isopropyl
alcohol and a microfiber mop, and the lab's air is filtered 70 times per hour.
Journalists invited by NASA also had to remove foam covers from their
microphones -- a breeding ground for germs. Specially approved paper and pens
were provided, in place of traditional writing implements which can shed dust
and other particles.

Guests are also
told to refrain from wearing any makeup or perfume. Technicians working on
crucial sampling equipment are often subject to even more stringent protocols.
"They can't take a shower, bathe the day they work on the hardware,"
Gruel said. "They can't put any hair products into their hair to style it,
they can only wear one or two types of deodorant." It is all a far cry
from the early days of space exploration.

Engineers would
frequently light up cigarettes while building the Ranger rockets that paved the
way for the Apollo moon missions. Costly mistakes have led to more caution. A
bid to sterilize the Ranger 3 mission in 1962 accidentally fried the rocket's
electronics, causing it to miss the Moon by more than 20,000 miles. - AFP