Sterilization of Surfaces to Inform the Mars Sample Return Campaign
About the Webinar
Originally presented on April 8, 2026
The United States government, as well as other international agencies, has a responsibility to protect Earth from foreign biological materials as well as safeguard other planets from our own potential contamination. As part of this responsibility, EPA collaborated with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to inform NASA's Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign. The goal of the MSR campaign is to return to Earth the soil and rock samples collected from Mars for further study.
EPA evaluated a technology that could be used to sterilize stainless-steel surfaces (the material used to contain the Mars samples), building on extensive research experience and expertise with decontaminating surfaces contaminated with microorganisms. This webinar will provide some background on the MSR campaign and discuss how the project team assessed the use of ultraviolet radiation produced by light-emitting diodes (UVC-LED) to kill bacterial spores. It will discuss the efficacy of the technology in sterilizing stainless-steel surfaces and some limitations that were found.
About the Presenters
Joseph Wood is a Senior Research Engineer with EPA's Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions. His research primarily involves the testing, evaluation, and development of technologies that can be used to decontaminate materials and environmental matrices contaminated with biological agents or ricin. He also investigates related areas such as the treatment and disposal of waste materials; the environmental fate, transport, and sampling of bioagents; and engineering aspects of decontamination. He is the primary author or co-author for 40 peer-reviewed journal articles and over 100 EPA published reports. He holds a master's degree in environmental engineering from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) and is a licensed professional engineer.
Emily Seto is Senior Manager of Planetary Protection (PP), Contamination Control (CC), and Research at Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company. She leads PP/CC subsystems for missions including Dragonfly, Martian Moons eXploration, VIPER, and multiple CLPS payloads. Previously at JPL, Emily supported Mars 2020 and Europa Clipper implementation and led research on spacecraft- and human-associated microbes in cleanroom environments. She has driven technology development for Mars Sample Return, enhancing contamination control and system reliability with UV- and heat-based sterilization strategies. Emily is Principal Investigator on several active awards and leads internal research and development in areas such as in-situ resource utilization and biomining. She is a licensed clinical microbiologist in California with over a decade of experience, she has collaborated extensively with United States and international organizations to advance PP, CC, and spaceflight microbiology across robotic exploration missions and future human spaceflight endeavors.