Disinfect with solar

[LaShomb]

UV is a common way to disinfect things. Is it possible to have germs die off in extreme light? Mix this with glass pipes, and we'd have another interesting way to manage germs. It seems like it would be balanced by needing to pipe stuff to the surface and protect the pipes. Could also provide an extra buff to some or all shine bugs, if they provide disinfecting at lower rates. 

[InternetGuy]

If you use light from space to disinfect, you still have the regolith problem. I do strongly believe shinebugs are pretty underused. I just use them as an eggshell farm due to their short lifespan.

[D.L.S.]

25 minutes ago, LaShomb said:

It seems like it would be balanced by needing to pipe stuff to the surface and protect the pipes.

And need glass pipes to expose stuff to light.

[LaShomb]

I liked the idea of exposing gas and liquid tanks to chlorine to disinfect them, but it doesnt make a lot of sense as the disinfectant is separated from the infection. That's not a problem for glass in light. Maybe an advanced version of the tanks that uses glass is an option.

[Sasza22]

This is interesting. If it worked it would provide another construction challenge as most gasses and liquids absorb a portion of the light (as well as glass) so you`d have to optimize the shepe of the disinfection chamber for full efficiency.

[crypticorb]

I love the idea of using solar light to disinfect, but the question is how would it be done?

For solids, the ore scrubber works very quickly to remove germs, but it's a fairly useless building because it requires a chlorine source and dupe time. 

A simple extension of @LaShomb's original idea would be a UV disinfectant light. Something that would researched right along with the hand sanitizer, and produces no visible light, but disinfects every transparent block within range. This would be FANTASTIC for disinfecting sewage pools, infected polluted oxygen vents, mushroom farms, and slimelung on solid surfaces (ladders, beds, etc).

The other part that would make this UV Light module more functional would be the glass pipes you mentioned. Most of the distance to the surface would be in normal pipes, but joined with the in-line germ pipe sensors, you could make a very effective disinfection solution. The pipe germ sensors are pretty useless currently, I still haven't found a good purpose for them.