Water Bears to Travel to Martian Moon, Test Theory of Transpermia
October 13, 2009 by Lisa Zyga
(Left) The BioModule will carry 30 samples, and have a mass of 100 grams. Credit: Bruce Betts/The Planetary Society. (Right) Water bears have already shown that they can survive vacuum conditions and intense radiation. Credit: Bob Goldstein.
(PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny microscopic creatures commonly known as water bears (also called Tardigrades), along with a few other life forms, will be sent to the Martian moon Phobos to test whether organisms can survive for long periods of time in deep space. The mission, called the Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment (LIFE), was originally going to be launched earlier this month, but it has been delayed due to safety and technical issues. Currently, the scientists hope to launch the specimens on the Russian Phobos-Grunt spacecraft in 2011, the next time that the orbits of Earth and Mars offer a launch window.
The LIFE experiment is being developed by The Planetary Society, a publicly supported organization founded in part by Carl Sagan that now has 125 member countries. The researchers will send 10 individual organisms (three of each, for a total of 30 samples) from all three domains of life - bacteria, eukaryota, and archaea - along with some native soil samples to Mars' largest moon on the three-year mission. According to the scientists, the experiment will test part of the theory of transpermia, specifically investigating life's ability to move between planets. In an earlier experiment in 2007, water bears flew on a spacecraft and survived the major hardships of radiation and the vacuum.
In 2011, the life forms will be packed up inside a puck-like container called a BioModule with a total mass of 100 grams, which is designed to resemble a meteorite that may have carried earlier life forms between planets. After the 10-month journey to Phobos, the specimens will undergo a 4,000-g impact on the moon's surface, spend a few weeks there in their sealed containers, and then return to Earth on board a robotic interplanetary lander that would crash-land in Kazakhstan. Scientists would then open the containers and see what was still alive.
"If no microbes survive, this does not necessarily rule out the possibility of transpermia, but it certainly calls it into question more," according to The Planetary Society's website. "But if some of the organisms do make it alive to Phobos and back, then at least we would know that some life could indeed survive an interplanetary journey over a three-year period inside a rock."
The experiment would mark the longest time that biological samples have spent in deep space; the Biostack 1 and 2 experiments, flown during the Apollo 16 and 17 missions to the moon, traveled outside the Earth's magnetosphere for about two weeks.
To prepare for the upcoming launch, the scientists had to overcome several challenges. They tested the BioModule's durability by violently vibrating the container while strapped to a shake table, and then shooting the container out of an air cannon to mimic the conditions it would undergo.
More information: The Planetary Society: LIFE Experiment and FAQ
via: Wired
© 2009 PhysOrg.com
15 hours ago
in my opnion, testing after the initial trip, from one planetary body to another would make a much better test than wasting millions of dollars to see if they make it there AND back...
Are they just going to crash the 100g module and then go land and look for it? (Crashing the whole mission craft is probably not agood idea)?
What if it rolled to an inaccessible space? Sounds a bit iffy/error prone...
For years and years exobiologists have protested that type of experiment. Where are they now?
Read the article again. Water bears are only one of 10 types of organsims to be included. The others include bacteria and archaea.
Bad Idea at so many levels , I truly hope they drop that project.
As for contaminating other planets and moons, if we don't kill ourselves off we'll get there eventually.
It's the comments like these that make my day a joy to live. I fully support THAT endeavor, TSquare!
People have been radiating organisms of various kind intentionally for long time, the mutation is the least of the worries.
Or do you really believe the mutations caused by increased radiation in magical space is somewhat more ominous?
I'd say this article lacks the reasoning how are they really going to bring it back? If I'd have to guess there is error in article. Maybe they are intended to study them only after one-way trip...