Tenacious-Techhunter
Mongoose
My Traveller group ran the "Annic Nova" adventure a few months ago. At the time, we were at a loss as to how exactly a ship should be decontaminated from biological, or any other for that matter, pathogens...
After a bit of research, I realized that a key part of decontaminating the ship should be UVGI: Ultra-Violet Germicidal Irradiation. Basically, a big Ultra-Violet strobe-light flashes the viruses and bacteria to death. Now, on Earth, this works very well. For an alien virus, that might have developed under considerably more Ultra-Violet exposure, that might not be the case... but, presumably, some light frequency might work. Or Ultra-Sonics, or short half-life radiation. Consult a doctor capable of running the appropriate cultures derived from test-samples through some exposure tests to determine suitable emissions for killing the pathogens. I mean, if it's good enough to kill Ebola...
Now, before you go and put this on a repair drone and call it a day, consider...
1. What about your air system, which is probably also contaminated, and probably too narrow for most repair drones? And your water system, which is even narrower?
2. If you only put it on one drone, and then you open the passageway to the next region, the air of your freshly cleaned region just got contaminated again...
3. Any objects in the way of your decontaminating flashes will be casting shadows, keeping the shadowed region from being decontaminated
So, here's some relevant equipment and a procedure to decontaminate the ship...
Assuming that Repair Drones aren't small enough to fit inside air vents (and if not, they should be resized), a ship will need "about a box full" of Decontamination Drones. Mostly little robots that whiz around and flash and chirp.
You'll need at least 2 for every branch in:
The Air Supply System
The Water System
Any Maintenance Tube system
And 4 for every dead-end of:
The Compartments, Cabins, Rooms, and Airlocks of the ship
More drones will always be better.
Decontaminations are to be done by individuals in good health that have been tested as free of pathogens. Biohazard suits with the standard light flash protection optics should be worn at all times before entering infected areas until after successful decontamination has been confirmed.
All items incapable of being fully decontaminated should be destroyed. All other items should be moved, as possible, to one place for individual decontamination on all sides. All storage compartments should be opened so they may be decontaminated. All surfaces should be cleaned of particulate matter, so that no spots are left hidden. All air filters and irradiators should be assumed to be faulty, if not also insufficient, and replaced.
If the source of infection is mostly or at least somewhat limited to one part of the ship, 4 drones per branch should go into the air supply and return ducts in that fully enclosed region. Two drones will keep the air going past the vents from being contaminated, and the others will trace the path to the air filtration system; branches will be taken by other pairs as necessary, when they are ordered to start sweeping the ducts.
If that compartment is aquatic, 4 drones per branch should should go into the water supply and return plumbing in that region as well.
At each compartment/cabin/room/airlock at a dead-end, put 2 drones per branch into the air supply and return ducts, water supply and return plumbing, maintenance tubes, and 4 for the region itself.
Cycle the air to cause the pressure to increase for each consecutive compartment, cabin, room, and airlock further away from the region suspected as being contaminated; this causes negative relative pressure in the contaminated region, drawing the contaminants in, rather than spreading them throughout the ship.
The Flashing Sweep proceeds as follows:
Drones should flash for a full cycle in their current fully enclosed continuous region before moving onto the next one. One pair should go ahead to the next fully enclosed continuous region, while another pair stays behind; this guarantees that when the passageway to the next contaminated region is opened, those contaminants that pass through them will be destroyed. When both regions are decontaminated, the pair that was left behind moves to the next region, and the passageway closes. When it is closed, the next passageway opens, the leading pair goes through, and both regions are flashed. This continues until all drones from all dead-ends have met each other in a central location. In the meantime, all items are to be cleaned manually by having them flashed on all sides. When all regions have been flashed in this order, and all items have been flashed, all regions and items should be tested for the pathogen. If all tests come back negative, the decontamination personnel should go to the medbay of the ship under decontamination and quarantine themselves in the medbay. They should then flash the suits both inside and out. Rations should be taken to the team for their stay in decontamination by a repair drone from an uncontaminated ship. They should then test themselves for the pathogen at regular intervals until the pathogen's hibernation period has expired. If they are not exposed, then the ship has been successfully decontaminated.
After a bit of research, I realized that a key part of decontaminating the ship should be UVGI: Ultra-Violet Germicidal Irradiation. Basically, a big Ultra-Violet strobe-light flashes the viruses and bacteria to death. Now, on Earth, this works very well. For an alien virus, that might have developed under considerably more Ultra-Violet exposure, that might not be the case... but, presumably, some light frequency might work. Or Ultra-Sonics, or short half-life radiation. Consult a doctor capable of running the appropriate cultures derived from test-samples through some exposure tests to determine suitable emissions for killing the pathogens. I mean, if it's good enough to kill Ebola...
Now, before you go and put this on a repair drone and call it a day, consider...
1. What about your air system, which is probably also contaminated, and probably too narrow for most repair drones? And your water system, which is even narrower?
2. If you only put it on one drone, and then you open the passageway to the next region, the air of your freshly cleaned region just got contaminated again...
3. Any objects in the way of your decontaminating flashes will be casting shadows, keeping the shadowed region from being decontaminated
So, here's some relevant equipment and a procedure to decontaminate the ship...
Assuming that Repair Drones aren't small enough to fit inside air vents (and if not, they should be resized), a ship will need "about a box full" of Decontamination Drones. Mostly little robots that whiz around and flash and chirp.
You'll need at least 2 for every branch in:
The Air Supply System
The Water System
Any Maintenance Tube system
And 4 for every dead-end of:
The Compartments, Cabins, Rooms, and Airlocks of the ship
More drones will always be better.
Decontaminations are to be done by individuals in good health that have been tested as free of pathogens. Biohazard suits with the standard light flash protection optics should be worn at all times before entering infected areas until after successful decontamination has been confirmed.
All items incapable of being fully decontaminated should be destroyed. All other items should be moved, as possible, to one place for individual decontamination on all sides. All storage compartments should be opened so they may be decontaminated. All surfaces should be cleaned of particulate matter, so that no spots are left hidden. All air filters and irradiators should be assumed to be faulty, if not also insufficient, and replaced.
If the source of infection is mostly or at least somewhat limited to one part of the ship, 4 drones per branch should go into the air supply and return ducts in that fully enclosed region. Two drones will keep the air going past the vents from being contaminated, and the others will trace the path to the air filtration system; branches will be taken by other pairs as necessary, when they are ordered to start sweeping the ducts.
If that compartment is aquatic, 4 drones per branch should should go into the water supply and return plumbing in that region as well.
At each compartment/cabin/room/airlock at a dead-end, put 2 drones per branch into the air supply and return ducts, water supply and return plumbing, maintenance tubes, and 4 for the region itself.
Cycle the air to cause the pressure to increase for each consecutive compartment, cabin, room, and airlock further away from the region suspected as being contaminated; this causes negative relative pressure in the contaminated region, drawing the contaminants in, rather than spreading them throughout the ship.
The Flashing Sweep proceeds as follows:
Drones should flash for a full cycle in their current fully enclosed continuous region before moving onto the next one. One pair should go ahead to the next fully enclosed continuous region, while another pair stays behind; this guarantees that when the passageway to the next contaminated region is opened, those contaminants that pass through them will be destroyed. When both regions are decontaminated, the pair that was left behind moves to the next region, and the passageway closes. When it is closed, the next passageway opens, the leading pair goes through, and both regions are flashed. This continues until all drones from all dead-ends have met each other in a central location. In the meantime, all items are to be cleaned manually by having them flashed on all sides. When all regions have been flashed in this order, and all items have been flashed, all regions and items should be tested for the pathogen. If all tests come back negative, the decontamination personnel should go to the medbay of the ship under decontamination and quarantine themselves in the medbay. They should then flash the suits both inside and out. Rations should be taken to the team for their stay in decontamination by a repair drone from an uncontaminated ship. They should then test themselves for the pathogen at regular intervals until the pathogen's hibernation period has expired. If they are not exposed, then the ship has been successfully decontaminated.
