Biological Aerosol Spectrofluorometric Identification System

There is a need for a rapid, inexpensive technique to monitor bioaerosol loading in a manned space environment in order to insure the safety and health of the occupants. Condensate traps from air conditioners and heating and cooling ducts in spacecraft provide particularly efficient means for producing and transmitting airborne pathogens. The lack of regeneration of internal air with fresh air allows the bioaerosol concentration to build to unacceptably high levels. Nanohmics Incorporated (Austin, TX) is developing a compact Ambient Biological Aerosol Spectrophotometric Identification System (Ambient BASIS) for in-flight detection and monitoring of potentially hazardous biological particles present in the manned space environment. The instrument will discriminate biological aerosols from nonbiological aerosols by detecting the fluorescence and elastic scattering from individual micron-sized airborne particles.