Design, development, and operation of an ISO class 5 cleanroom for planetary instrumentation and planetary protection protocols

Cleanrooms are controlled environments where the number of airborne particles is reduced to a level defined by an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard. These facilities have applications in different fields, such as the electronic, pharmaceutical, and healthcare sectors, and are also necessary for the assembly, testing and handling of space hardware. Cleanrooms are expensive to build and maintain and require the permanent designation of infrastructures and dedicated spaces within a building. Once built, clean rooms cannot be used for any other purpose, as contamination is a significant risk. The restricted access to these facilities limits the process of designing, testing, and calibrating instruments developed by academic institutions, small companies, and space startups. Here we present a Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) procedure for building and maintaining a highly controlled ISO class 5 cleanroom, according to ISO14644 standards. We provide a detailed explanation of how to design, develop and operate a portable, modular, and cost-effective ISO class 5 cleanroom that can be used for the usual workflow of development, integration, test procedures and planetary protection associated with the design of instrumentation for planetary exploration.