Abstract_EANA2024-26

Abstract EANA2024-26

BioSigN: Using an Exposure Lab on the ISS for Preparation of In Situ Life Detection Missions and Habitability Studies

Jean-Pierre Paul de Vera (1), Mickael Baqué (2) and the BioSigN team (*)

(1) German Aerospace Center (DLR), Space Operations and Astronaut Training, MUSC, Cologne, Germany, (2) German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Planetary Research, Planetary Laboratories department, Berlin, Germany, (*) BioSigN team: Ute Böttger, Jörn Helbert, Frank Sohl, Andreas Lorek, Andreas Elsaesser, Dirk Wagner, Thomas Berger, Ralf Möller, Peter Lasch, Peter Heisig, Anke Heisig, Daniela Billi, Silvano Onofri, Laura Selbmann, Laura Zucconi, Barbara Cavalazzi, Frances Westall, Frédéric Foucher, Rosa de la Torre, Jesús M. Frías, Karen Olsson-Francis, Deb Barh, Charles S. Cockell, Markus Braun, Elke Rabbow, Dirk Schulze-Makuch, Marina Walther-Antonio, Ilka Axmann, Bernard Foing, Rodrigo Coutinho de Almeida, Natalia Kozyrovska, Agata Kołodziejczyk, John Brucato, Autun Purser, Alessandro Maturilli, Solmaz Adeli, Jan Bredehöft, Cyprien Verseux, Christoph Waldmann, Frank Postberg, Nozair Khawaja, Alessia Cassaro, Henry Strasdeit, Claudia Pacelli, Tadeusz Uhl, Michelle Gehringer, Fabian Klenner, Aristóteles Góes Neto, Vasco Azevedo

BioSigN (BioSignatues and habitable Niches) is a space experiment supported by ESA and foreseen to be performed in Low Earth Orbit on the exposure lab Exobio on Bartholoméo to be fixed outside the Columbus Module on the International Space Station (ISS). Partly as the previous space experiment BIOMEX [1,2] but further improved, 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 analyse to what extent selected organisms and (micro-)fossils acquired from Icy Moon/Mars analogue field sites (terrestrial and ocean/deep sea location) 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 analysing 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. In this presentation there will be a particular focus on presenting the selected samples, the planned simulation experiments on ground and in space as well as the chosen detection methods.

[1] de Vera et al., Planetary and Space Science 74 (1): 103-110 (2012)

[2] Baqué et al., Science Advances 8, eabn7412 (2022).