Placed in small boxes outside the ISS, some of these terrestrial organisms survived 533 days in the space vacuum, intense ultraviolet radiation and extreme temperature variations. Back on this impressive performance to say the least.
These boxes recreated the conditions prevailing on Mars
Of all the planets in the solar system, March seems to be the most likely to support life. But, it is nonetheless extremely inhospitable: arid, low in oxygen and with a very low gravity, it is also subject to violent radiation due to its thinner atmosphere and shaken by violent storms of dust capable of plunging it into darkness. Although no trace of life has yet been detected on this planet, testing the survival capacities of terrestrial organisms on this planet is made possible by theISS.
the German Aerospace Center (DLR) just published the results of his experiment called Biomexduring which organisms such as bacteria, algae, lichens and fungi were exposed to conditions similar to those prevailing in March on board the international space station (ISS). The Red Planet is home to many of the components essential to life, including an atmosphere, and various elements, such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus and water in the form of ice (even possibly liquid water in its basement).
grown in a compound close to Martian soil (which could be reproduced fairly faithfully thanks to the various analyzes carried out by the robots on March), the organisms were then placed outside theISS in a device called Expose-R2.
Several of these organisms have survived a year and a half of exposure in space
Of the hundreds of samples included in the experiment, some were tested in chambers that also simulated the Martian atmosphere. After spending 18 months in space between 2014 and 2016, the samples were then flown back to Earth to be analyzed there, and it turned out that some of the organisms and biomolecules they contained had survived this prolonged exposure to powerful radiation. Unicellular microorganisms existing on Earth for more than 3 billion years, archaea are among the list of survivors, and researchers believe that similar organisms may exist on March.
Most of the candidates selected for the experiment came from particularly inhospitable terrestrial environments (poles, Alps, arid lands and permafrost). qualified asextremophiles due to their unusual resilience, these are considered the most likely to exist on other planets (or natural satellites like Enceladus Where Europe). By surviving a year and a half of exposure in space in conditions close to those of Marchthese demonstrate that they could in theory survive it.
Knowing the type of organism able to withstand these conditions will allow researchers to develop tools that are more likely to detect the presence of life forms during future missions to the Red Planet.
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