Expose-R2 experment: Exploring Mars in low Earth orbit

The Expose-R2 experment on the outside of the Zvezda module of the International Space Station (ISS). 

Credit: DLR

In their quest to understand life's potential beyond Earth, astrobiologists study how organisms might survive in numerous environments, from the surface of Mars to the ice-covered oceans of Jupiter's moon, Europa.

For now, Earth is our only example of an inhabited planet, and studying the limits of habitability on Earth is a major component of astrobiology research.

For this reason, scientists collect data from places on our planet where life is pushed to the absolute limits of adaptability, from the Antarctic to the Arctic, and from smoldering thermal vents to highly acidic rivers.

But locations like the Antarctic Dry Valleys or deep-sea vents in the Pacific aren't the only places in which astrobiologists study life as we know it. Low Earth orbit provides an opportunity to observe Earth-life in the harsh conditions of space.

In the early hours of July 24th, 2014, a new astrobiology experiment began its journey from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station (ISS).

BIOMEX (Biology and Mars Experiment) launched onboard a Russian Progress cargo spacecraft and is one of four experiments that make up the EXPOSE-R2 facility, which will be mounted on the exterior of the ISS Zvezda module.

Just six hours after launch, the cargo ship successfully docked with the ISS.

Life on the Station
BIOMEX contains twelve different experimental packages that are designed to help determine life's potential on Mars.

The Institute of Planetary Research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is coordinating BIOMEX, but the project involves 25 participating institutions from around the world.

BIOMEX contains numerous chambers that are filled with biomolecules and organisms that include bacteria, archaea, algae, fungi, lichens and mosses.

Replicate samples spread across the compartments are subjected to a range of environmental conditions.

Some samples of each biomolecule or organism are embedded in a simulant Mars soil (ranging from just a single layer of soil to multiple layers), and other samples are left on their own to face the space environment without protection.

Various filters are also being used on the sample chambers to test exposure to different levels of radiation.

By doing this, scientists are able to simulate the solar radiation present at the martian surface. Some of the sample chambers are even pumped full of a simulated Mars atmosphere that is rich in carbon dioxide and pressurized to replicate conditions on Mars.

"To gain real insights into the behavior of biomolecules within a martian environment, we have to check the different parameters we might encounter on Mars," explained Dr. Jean-Pierre Paul de Vera of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the principle investigator for BIOMEX.

"This means we will approach, as much as possible on the ISS, martian conditions, including extreme temperature regimes, martian atmosphere by using Mars-like gases in the compartments of EXPOSE-R2, and the radiation regime, which we can never simulate in the labs on Earth."

The samples will spend up to one and a half years outside the space station, and the organisms inside will be monitored with temperature sensors and dosimeters, which monitor radiation exposure.

The goal is to see how exposure to these varied environmental pressures affects the survival of the organisms and the stability of important cellular components like membrane lipids, pigments, proteins and DNA.

The results of BIOMEX will help astrobiologists understand whether or not these biological materials can cope with conditions in the space environment and on Mars, and if being buried in martian soil might aid in their survival.

Tools for the Future
While the samples in BIOMEX are attached to the outside of the station, scientists on Earth will be working with replicate samples in the lab.

Here they will simulate martian conditions as best they can in the controlled environment of the laboratory and monitor the Earth-bound samples with a number of instruments.

View of a Progress vehicle connected to the Zvezda module of the ISS. 

The Zvezda Service Module was the first fully Russian contribution to the International Space Station. 

The module provides station living quarters, life support systems, electrical power distribution, data processing systems, flight control systems and propulsion systems. 

Credit: NASA

At the completion of the experiment, BIOMEX samples will be returned to Earth where scientists will take a close look at the results. In the laboratory, they will examine the stability of biomolecules after they have been exposed to the conditions in low Earth orbit.

This includes studying the signatures they leave behind in the sample chambers, which could be useful on future life-detection missions on Mars.

"BIOMEX is investigating the capacity of instruments to detect selected biosignatures (pigments, membrane composites, lipids etc.) in a Mars-like environment before and after space experiments, and also during Mars simulations in the lab," de Vera told reporters.

The set of spectroscopic instruments they are using on Earth are similar to those currently being eyed for Mars missions in the near future.

They include Raman, IR and UV/VIS spectroscopes. Initial tests in the lab have already turned up some interesting results.

Studies at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne and Berlin indicate that biosignatures are altered by temperature and radiation.

This causes their appearance to differ from the signatures we normally observe in Earth conditions.

Beyond Astrobiology
Data from BIOMEX could also have some important applications beyond the realm of astrobiology according to Dr. de Vera.

Studying how biosignatures survive in a simulated Mars regolith might have lessons for archaeology experts on Earth who are looking for radiation-independent (e.g. not carbon 14-dating) methods to study ancient wooden objects.

In particular, the thermogravimetric methodology, which is used by de Vera and his team to test the bounded and remaining water in BIOMEX samples after they have faced the conditions of space, is of special interest for archaeologists.

Raman spectroscopy is also a technique that is growing in prominence for biological studies in numerous fields.

"Raman spectroscopy is used more and more in microbiology, pharmacology and medicine," said de Vera.

"The Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, which is cooperating with us, uses this method (coupled with other methods) to characterise microorganisms that can be harmful to health, and they have to be detected very fast to find out if there could be a risk of an epidemic."

The studies of biofilms in space could have some interesting implications for the health of astronauts and humans on Earth.

On Earth, biofilms are used in some health drinks to trigger the immune system. Studying biofilms in space can help determine whether or not these drinks might be safe for astronauts to consume in orbit, or if the space environment will cause biofilm cultures to rapidly mutate in such a way as to become harmful for consumption.

"Desiccation [removal of water] and radiation protection is also a very important issue," noted de Vera.

"Studies on the exposed samples might give more information about how the most resistant microorganisms are able to shield themselves efficiently, and which substances are responsible for their resistance.

The cosmetic and food industries are interested in these results."

In fact, the Fraunhofer Institute IZI for Cell Therapy and Immunology in Potsdam, Germany is already working with two of the organisms that de Vera and his team are studying.

One is a highly resistant cyanobacteria, and the other is a green algae. Thanks to BIOMEX, these organisms now have a home in low Earth orbit, clinging to the outside of the International Space Station.

The Mars Simulation Facility Laboratory. 

Credit: DLR

Further afield BIOMEX will help astrobiologists understand the potential for habitability on Mars.

If life ever originated on Mars, and if that life operated under the same biological principles as on Earth, could those organisms have adapted to survive on Mars in the present day?

By exploring this question, BIOMEX could help shape the future of Mars exploration, providing guidelines for where robotic explorers might search for signs of life on present-day Mars or signs of ancient life preserved in the regolith.

"With the data obtained by the selected biomolecules as potential biosignatures and which are exposed to the Mars-like conditions in space, we are building up a database that might have significant relevance for future exploration missions to Mars," said de Vera.

"This database might serve as back-up, or a systematically generated reference list that takes into account the martian environmental conditions that might influence the signatures of minerals, and possible fossils or biomolecules from potential extant life forms."

Mysterious Green Swirls Spotted Off Antarctic Coast | Phytoplankton Blooms

These green swirls were spotted off the coast of East Antarctica on Feb. 27 by NASA's Terra satellite.

CREDIT: NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team

Late last month, a NASA satellite flying over East Antarctica spotted swirls of green off the Princess Astrid Coast that left experts wondering just what it was.

Such a pattern usually indicates a bloom of tiny plantlike organisms called phytoplankton, which form the base of the ocean food chain.

Such blooms are common along the Antarctic coast, but typically form in early December, in the austral spring, not so late in the summer season, according to experts consulted by NASA.

"It doesn't look like a phytoplankton bloom to me," Stanford University marine biologist Kevin Arrigo, who led NASA's ICESCAPE expeditions to the Arctic in 2010 and 2011, told NASA. "The spatial pattern resembles the sea ice too closely. It looks suspiciously like green sea ice. Plus, it’s very late for such a bloom in the Antarctic."

NASA MODIS: Antarctic Algae Bloom Can be Seen from Space

A field of bright green algae in Antarctica could be seen from space.

Australian scientists spotted the algae captured in satellite pictures.

The scientists believe that the growth has been caused by a build-up of iron, most likely caused by snow that blew into the waters.

The algae bloom, which is about 200 kilometres wide and 100 kilometres long, was photographed from the Modis instrument on Nasa's Terra Satellite, at least 650 kms from the Earth.

Mark Curran from the Australian Antarctic Division reported that Antarctica's snow contained small amount of iron.

He said during summer, Amery Ice Shelf in East Antarctica had experienced strong winds which would have blown the snow into the ocean.

"Very, very tiny amounts of iron act as a nutrient," he said.

"Usually algae in this region are iron limited and so when they get a small amount of iron and they have everything else they need, that's enough for them to bloom," he added.

The scientists said that the algae had been there for more than three weeks and would not cause any damage to the environment.

They said it would disappear automatically.

“Blue Holes” in Bahamas: Strange Life Forms Found

Researchers have found new forms of life that are totally unkown in underwater caves in the Bahamas called "blue holes."

These caves can provide clues on how life evolved not only on Earth but possibly on alien worlds, researchers said.

The researchers, led by Tom Iliffe, a marine biologist at Texas A &M University at Galveston, examined three inland blue holes in the Bahamas and discovered that layers of bacteria exist in all of them, although the microbes are significantly in one sinkhole are significantly different from the others.

The findings that each cave has different conditions from the others and thus a different forms of life will help scientists analyze the diverse routes life might have taken on Earth, according to researchers.

"These bacterial forms of life may be similar to microbes that existed on early Earth and thus provide a glimpse of how life evolved on this planet," Iliffe explained. "These caves are natural laboratories where we can study life existing under conditions analogous to what was present many millions of years ago."

Iliffe and his colleagues said these findings might also shed light on how life might have developed on distant planets and moons.

The researchers noted that tens of thousands of underwater caves are scattered around the world, but less than 5 percent of these have ever been explored and scientifically investigated.

"We know more about the far side of the moon than we do about these caves right here on Earth," Iliffe said. "There is no telling what remains to be discovered in the many thousands of caves that no one has ever entered. If life exists elsewhere in our solar system, it most likely would be found in water-filled subterranean environments, perhaps equivalent to those we are studying in the Bahamas."

Other places have turned out to be habitats for life, including some which may be considered as strange or seeming inhabitable places on the planet. The website ouramazingplanet.com listed the strangest places that is home to life. Among them are:

• Bubbling lakes of hot tar, which seem unlike to host living things, apparently teem with microbial life. In Pitch Lake, on the Caribbean island of Trinidad the world's largest naturally occurring asphalt lake, each gram of sticky black goo can harbor up to 10 million microbes.

• Radioactive wastes can be home to some species of bacteria like the bacteria Deinococcus radiodurans which can take up to 5,000 grays with no visible effect, and can even withstand up to 15,000 grays, earning it the title of "world's toughest bacterium" in the Guinness Book of World Records.

• Boiling water which can kill humans is home to a dazzling array of life. Underwater hot springs in the Pacific Ocean teem with tubeworms and giant clams, while the Atlantic variety is typically home to eyeless shrimp and other extreme residents.

• The Dead Sea is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world, making it too harsh for most life to thrive there. But salt-loving or "halophile" microbes can thrive in this water body.

• Frozen ice, like lakes buried under ice, has been home to microbes. In the oldest known ice on Earth in Antarctica, scientists revived microbes that had been frozen for millions of years.

The UFO In Baltic Sea

Envisat Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) satellite image acquired July 11, 2010 shows blue-green algae blooms in the Baltic Sea.

The term "Algae bloom" is used to describe the multiplying of phytoplankton, microscopic marine plants that drift on or near the surface of the sea. 

While individually microscopic, the chlorophyll that phytoplankton use for photosynthesis collectively tints the surrounding ocean waters, providing a means of detecting these tiny organisms from space with dedicated 'ocean colour' sensors.

Germany, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Poland are pictured bordering the sea.

(Photo: REUTERS/European Space Agency/)

 
In 2011, an extraordinary circular object was seen on the surface of the Baltic Sea by a group of stranded ship hunters. This year, they claimed again that they have witnessed another strange object with a disc-like shape around 200 meters away- from the area where they first saw the same kind of thing.

The leader of the team, Peter Lindberg, joked that the first thing they have discovered 300 feet below the sea surface might be a UFO, or an unidentified flying object, when interviewed by CNN.

The first bizarre object that was discovered June last year has a diameter of 195 feet. Believers thought of it as a stranded UFO, which had smashed into the sea leaving behind a trail of damage about 900 feet. The story regarding this so-called UFO was exposed at News.com.au.

CNN news revealed how the group found out about the objects.

The hunters were using an imaging technique that tracks down and magnetize a sonar "towfish." The towfish actually appears sideways underwater. They placed the device at the back of the boat, where it suitably produces a sound that echoes to map underwater.

The Baltic Sea is like a breeding ground where you can typically discover retrieved objects. Ardreas Olsson, a sonar expert, said they have identified 20,000 salvaged objects mostly stranded ships in the Baltic Sea. Olsson thinks that there could be over 100,000 things to discover underwater. He's excited to encounter more discoveries.

UFO believers are for sure more than excited to hear updates about the new found object.

NASA: Blue Green Algae bloom Lake Atitln, Guatemala

A large bloom of cyanobacteria, more commonly known as blue-green algae, can be seen on Guatemala's Lake Atitln in this simulated-natural-colour image taken from space by NASA's Terra satellite

Picture: NASA / BARCROFT