We develop small free-flying "nanosatellites" (mass &lt; 15 kg; volume &lt; 10 L) that utilize miniaturized integrated bio/analytical instruments, sensors, microfluidics, and a range of supporting technologies to conduct frequent, economical, autonomous astrobiological and life-science experiments in outer space.  The technologies motivated and implemented by these missions form the basis of a rapidly growing suite of miniaturized chemically- and biologically-focused instrumentation now enabling a new generation of in-situ space science experiments.  From 2006 to 2020, our spaceflight missions past, present, and near-future have include studies of gene expression, drug dose response, microbial longevity, degradation of molecular biomarkers, gravitational effects on photosynthetic efficiency, modulation of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria, gravity sensing thresholds in spores, and the repair of radiation-induced DNA damage in interplanetary space.  In this presentation, we will focus particularly on the O/OREOS (Organism/ORganic Exposure to Orbital Stress) mission and the underlying science and technology of its nanosatellite platform, which in 2010 – 2011 successfully implemented a study in outer space of the longevity of the common spore Bacillus subtilis in one of two 10-cm-cube payload systems; in the second payload, it characterized the solar-radiation-induced degradation of several organic biomarker molecules in thin-film form via UV-visible-NIR spectroscopy, using the sun as light source.

O/OREOS nanosatellite space-environment effects on microbes and organic biomarkers

2019 Spring National Meeting

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