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Abstract EANA2025-20 |
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BioSigN: a space experiment in the final years of ISS operations
Jean-Pierre Paul de Vera (1), Mickaël Baqué (2) and BioSigN team (3)
(1) DLR, Space Operations and Astronaut Training, Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC), Germany
(2) DLR, Institute of Space Research, Germany
(3) BioSigN team: Ute Böttger (DLR, Berlin, Germany), Frank Sohl (DLR, Berlin, Germany), Andreas Lorek (DLR, Berlin, Germany), Andreas Elsaesser (FU Berlin, Germany), Severin.Wipf (FU Berlin, Germany), Dirk Wagner (GFZ, Potsdam, Germany), Thomas Berger (DLR, Cologne), Kristina Beblo-Vranesevic (DLR, Berlin, Germany), Peter Lasch (RKI, Berlin, Germany), Daniela Billi (University Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy), Silvano Onofri (University della Tuscía, Viterbo, Italy), Laura Selbmann (University della Tuscía, Viterbo, Italy), Laura Zucconi (University della Tuscía, Viterbo, Italy), Barbara Cavalazzi (University of Bologna), Frances Westall (CNRS, Orléans, France), Frédéric Foucher (CRNS, Orléans, France), Rosa de la Torre (INTA, Madrid, Spain), Jesús M. Frías (IGEO, CSIC, Madrid, Spain), Karen Olsson-Francis (OU Milton-Keynes, UK), Deb Barh (((IIOAB)-India and UFMG-Brazil), Charles S. Cockell (University of Edinburgh, UK), Markus Braun (DLR, Bonn, Germany), Elke Rabbow (DLR, Cologne, Germany), Dirk Schulze-Makuch (TU Berlin, Germany), Marina Walther-Antonio (MAYO, Rochester, MN, USA), Ilka Axmann (HHU Düsseldorf, Germany) Timo Babel (HHU, Düsseldorf, Germany), Bernard Foing (Leiden Observatory, Laboratory Astrophysics, Leiden University, Leiden), Rodrigo Coutinho de Almeida (ESA, Telespazio, Nordwijk, Netherlands), Natalia Kozyrovska (Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics of NASU, Kyiv, Ukraine), Agata Kołodziejczyk (AGH, Krakow, Poland), John Brucato (INAF, Florence, Italy), Mariano Battistuzzi (INAF, Florence, Italy), Autun Purser (AWI, Bremerhaven, Germany), Alessandro Maturilli (DLR, Berlin, Germany), Solmaz Adeli (DLR, Berlin, Germany), Jan Bredehöft (University Bremen, Germany), Cyprien Verseux (ZARM, Bremen, Germany), Christoph Waldmann (MARUM, Bremen, Germany), Frank Postberg (FU Berlin, Germany), Nozair Khawaja (FU Berlin, Germany; Uni Stuttgart), Alessia Cassaro (ASI, Italy), Henry Strasdeit (Uni Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany),, Claudia Pacelli (ASI, Italy), Tadeusz Uhl (AGH, Krakow, Poland), Michelle Gehringer (University of Kaiserslautern, Germany), Fabian Klenner (University of Washington, USA), Aristóteles Góes Neto (Federal University of Minas Gerais, UFMG, Brasil), Vasco Azevedo (Federal University of Minas Gerais, UFMG, Brasil), Elias Chatzitheodoridis (National Technical University of Athens, Greece), Christos Georgiou (University of Patras, Greece)
BioSigN (BioSignatues and habitable Niches) is a space experiment supported by ESA and foreseen to be performed in Low Earth Orbit in the final years of ISS operations. The main objective of BioSigN is to support and prepare future planetary exploration missions to Mars, Enceladus, Europa and/or Titan by conducting exposure experiments on the ISS. To maximize the scientific output, the outcome of BioSigN will be connected to the results obtained on ground from recent and up-coming planetary analogue field site studies and planetary simulation facilities. The BioSigN project is conceived to achieve three central objectives:
- To analyze to what extent selected organisms and (micro-)fossils acquired from planetary/Mars analogue field sites can survive/outlast the conditions of space exposure;
- To evaluate by the obtained results the habitability of present/past Mars and of the icy ocean worlds in the solar system.
- To test the (in)stability of a particular set of bio-molecules when exposed to space and Mars-like conditions, and to investigate their mechanisms of resistance or degradation as well as analyzing if they are still detectable by the commonly used life detection methods;
To reach these goals, the test samples will be exposed to space vacuum and space radiation, approaching icy-moon specific or planet-specific gaseous and solar environments. Here we will present the actual necessary activities during the pre-flight phase showing also the coordination steps between P-Is, Co-Is, ESA and the Industry and we will explain the selection of the proposed samples. We will also highlight the potential the BioSigN results might have in reference to the field of applied Astrobiology, what could have implications to health issues, to Agriculture in times of climate change, to Bio-based Life Supporting Systems, to Bio-Fuel production, ISRU/Bio-Mining and Bio-Monitoring/Bio-detection.
