Space As a Tool for Astrobiology: Review and Recommendations for Experimentations in Earth Orbit and Beyond
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Space Sci Rev (2017) 209:83–181 DOI 10.1007/s11214-017-0365-5 SPECIAL COMMUNICATION Space as a Tool for Astrobiology: Review and Recommendations for Experimentations in Earth Orbit and Beyond Hervé Cottin1 · Julia Michelle Kotler2,3,4 · Daniela Billi5 · Charles Cockell6 · René Demets7 · Pascale Ehrenfreund8 · Andreas Elsaesser9,10 · Louis d’Hendecourt11 · Jack J.W.A. van Loon12,13 · Zita Martins14 · Silvano Onofri15 · Richard C. Quinn16 · Elke Rabbow17 · Petra Rettberg17 · Antonio J. Ricco16 · Klaus Slenzka18,19 · Rosa de la Torre20 · Jean-Pierre de Vera21 · Frances Westall22 · Nathalie Carrasco23 · Aurélien Fresneau1 · Yuko Kawaguchi24 · Yoko Kebukawa 25 · Dara Nguyen1 · Olivier Poch1 · Kafila Saiagh1 · Fabien Stalport1 · Akihiko Yamagishi24 · Hajime Yano26 · Benjamin A. Klamm16 Received: 30 September 2015 / Accepted: 5 April 2017 / Published online: 20 June 2017 © The Author(s) 2017. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract The space environment is regularly used for experiments addressing astrobiol- ogy research goals. The specific conditions prevailing in Earth orbit and beyond, notably Note by the editor: This is a Special Communication, supplementing the papers by Cottin et al. on “Astrobiology and the Possibility of Life on Earth and Elsewhere...”,2015, Space Science Reviews, doi:10.1007/s11214-015-0196-1 and Martins et al. (2017) “Earth as a Tool for Astrobiology—A European Perspective”, Space Science Reviews; doi:10.1007/s11214-017-0369-1. B H. Cottin [email protected] 1 LISA, UMR CNRS 7583, Université Paris Est Créteil et Université Paris Diderot, Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, 61, av du Général de Gaulle, 94010, Créteil Cedex, France 2 Leiden Observatory, PO Box 9513, 2300 Leiden, The Netherlands 3 Universität Konstanz FB Biologie, Z 818, 78457 Konstanz, Germany 4 Chemical Analysis Facility, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, Berkshire RG6 6AD, UK 5 University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy 6 School of Physics and Astronomy, UK Centre for Astrobiology, SUPA, James Clerk Maxwell Building, King’s Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK 7 ESTEC (HRE-UB), Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk, The Netherlands 8 Space Policy Institute, George Washington University, 20052 Washington DC, USA 9 Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, Leiden 2333CC, The Netherlands 10 Experimental Molecular Biophysics, Department of Physics, Free University of Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany 11 Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, UMR 8617 CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France 12 VU University Medical Center (VUmc), Dept. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery/Oral Pathology, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 84 H. Cottin et al. the radiative environment (photons and energetic particles) and the possibility to conduct long-duration measurements, have been the main motivations for developing experimental concepts to expose chemical or biological samples to outer space, or to use the reentry of a spacecraft on Earth to simulate the fall of a meteorite. This paper represents an overview of past and current research in astrobiology conducted in Earth orbit and beyond, with a special focus on ESA missions such as Biopan, STONE (on Russian FOTON capsules) and EXPOSE facilities (outside the International Space Station). The future of exposure plat- forms is discussed, notably how they can be improved for better science return, and how to incorporate the use of small satellites such as those built in cubesat format. Keywords Astrobiology · Exobiology · Astrochemistry · Hardware for space experiments · BIOPAN · STONE · EXPOSE · Tanpopo · Cubesat · Nanosatellites · International Space Station · Space environment Contents 1 Introduction ....................................... 85 2TheSpaceRadiationEnvironment........................... 86 2.1Photons....................................... 88 2.2RadiationOtherthanPhotons........................... 88 2.3SpaceEnvironmentVersusLaboratoryEnvironment............... 94 3 Current and Past Astrobiology Facilities . ...................... 97 13 European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), TEC-MMG, Life & Physical Science, Instrumentation and Life Support Laboratory, European Space Agency (ESA), Keplerlaan 1, 2200 AG, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 14 Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ, London, UK 15 Università della Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy 16 NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, 94035, USA 17 Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Radiation Biology Department, Research Group Astrobiology, DLR, Koeln, Germany 18 Jacobs Univ., Bremen, Germany 19 OHB, Bremen, Germany 20 INTA, Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Crta. Ajalvir, km. 4, 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain 21 Institute of Planetary Research, Management and Infrastructure, Research Group Astrobiology Laboratories, DLR, Berlin, Germany 22 CNRS, CBM, UPR 4301, rue Charles Sadron, 45071 Orléans, France 23 Université Versailles St-Quentin, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, CNRS, LATMOS, 11 Blvd. d’Alembert, 78280 Guyancourt, France 24 Department of Applied Life Sciences, Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, Hachioji 192-0392, Japan 25 Faculty of Engineering, Yokohama National University, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan 26 Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Sagamihara 252-5210, Japan Space as a Tool for Astrobiology: Review and Recommendations. 85 3.1 Common Tools and Facilities ........................... 97 3.1.1LDEF..................................... 98 3.1.2EURECA................................... 98 3.1.3Salute-6,7,Bion-9,11andMIRSpaceStation............... 99 3.1.4BiopanonFotonCapsule.......................... 99 3.1.5EXPOSEOutsidetheInternationalSpaceStation............. 100 3.1.6TANPOPOOutsidetheInternationalSpaceStation............ 108 3.1.7 O/OREOS Nanosatellite .......................... 110 3.1.8 OREOcube: An ISS Hitchhiker and New In-situ Exposure Platform . 112 3.1.9STONEExperiments............................ 113 3.2SpaceExperimentsforChemistry......................... 114 3.2.1DiversityofSamplesforAstrochemistryExperimentsinSpace..... 114 3.2.2HardwareforChemistry........................... 120 3.2.3Results.................................... 135 3.2.4 Limitations of Current Astrochemistry Facilities . .......... 139 3.3SpaceExperimentsforBiology.......................... 141 3.3.1DiversityofSamplesforBiologyExperimentsinSpace......... 141 3.3.2HardwareforBiology............................ 143 3.3.3Results.................................... 159 3.3.4 Limitations of Current Biology Facilities . ................ 165 4 Future Astrobiology Facilities . ........................... 166 4.1AstrobiologicalScienceDrivers.......................... 166 4.2 Relevant and Accessible Space Environments for Astrobiology Experiments . 168 4.3 Cubesats for Astrobiology/Astrochemistry .................... 169 4.4 The Gaps: Key Future Facilities .......................... 170 5Summary,ConclusionsandRecommendations.................... 172 Acknowledgements.................................... 175 References......................................... 175 1 Introduction Science experiments designed to benefit from the unique conditions provided in situ by the space environment began almost at the same time as the conquest of space in the late 1950s. When the word “exobiology” was coined by J. Lederberg in 1960 (Lederberg 1960), at a time when the search for life beyond Earth started to settle on the scientific founda- tion that prevails today (Cottin et al. 2015a), microorganisms were intentionally placed in space as part of the scientific payloads of Sputniks, Vostoks and Gemini spacecraft, prin- cipally to study the effects of microgravity (Taylor et al. 1974). The very first exposure of microorganisms to space radiation, proving that life could survive the extremely harsh con- ditions of open space, were conducted on sounding rockets in 1965 (150 km) (Hotchin et al. 1967), extended to the Gemini 9 and 12 missions in 1966 (300 km) (Hotchin et al. 1968) and finally as the Apollo 16 mission was flying back to Earth from the Moon (Taylor et al. 1974). After Apollo 16, space was used episodically as a tool for astrobiology in the 1980s (Long Duration Exposure Facility—LDEF) and in the early 1990s (EUropean REtrievable CArrier—EURECA). In parallel with the increasing number of organic molecules detected in the interstellar medium and better understanding of the chemical complexity of carbona- ceous chondrites, comets, and planetary environments such as the atmosphere of Titan, the 86 H. Cottin et al. number of experiments addressing chemistry with an astrobiological perspective increased. It is now quite common to have both astrochemistry and biology experiments on a given fa- cility. With the Biopan, STONE, and now the EXPOSE facilities on the International Space Station (ISS), the European Space Agency (ESA) has shown sustained interest since the mid- 1990s in granting its science community regular access to the space environment. Two main scientific questions related to astrobiology motivate the experiments supported by those fa- cilities: • What does the resistance of microorganisms to space conditions tell us about the possi- bility to find life beyond Earth and what can we learn from space effects on microbes that is pertinent to planetary protection? • How was the chemistry leading to the origin of life on Earth influenced by processes in space? • What can we learn from these types of experiments to support