How did you prevent Beagle II from contaminating Mars?
This was built entirely in what we call an aseptic environment. There are higher levels; there is an internationally agreed set of numbers that you must not exceed. So far there's only been 3 or 4 spacecrafts that ever had to do this. You set the standard, you get below the standard or they don't let you launch. So beagle was well below the standard. But there's a higher tier. As we are learning about Mars more it becomes more dangerous, as you find out that there is liquid water there, and then the probability or the possibility of life being there becomes higher. So you start taking more and more stringent precautions. The next generation of spacecrafts may actually be sterilized. This was built aseptically, but it's not sterilized. If you want to build a spacecraft and sterilize it, then the only way we know that that works is to put it in an oven at around 130 degrees, for something like up to 50 hours. Now the electronics that work in these things don't like that very much. So there are some things that you can't do, so you have to do that to the electronics that will do that, or systems that will do that. And there are benefits on earth – you'll be able to take measurements above boiling water.
