Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment

Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment

Infobox_Spacecraft
Name = Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment


Organization = Planetary Society
Contributors = NPO Lavochkin
Mission_Type = Astrobiological experiment
Launch = 2009

The Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment (LIFE) is an interplanetary mission being developed by the Planetary Society. It will consist of sending selected microorganisms on a three-year interplanetary round-trip in a small capsule aboard the Russian Phobos-Grunt spacecraft in 2009. The goal is to test whether organisms can survive for years in deep space. The experiment will test one aspect of transpermia, the hypothesis that life could survive space travel, if protected inside rocks blasted by impact off one planet to land on another. [ [http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/life/ Projects: LIFE Experiment: Phobos] ] [ [http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/phobosdeimos2007/pdf/7043.pdf Living interplanetary flight experiment (LIFE): An experiment on the survivalability of microorganisms during interplanetary travel] ] [ [http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/Mission_Possible.html?c=y&page=4]

Overview

It is planned to fly representatives of all three domains of life: bacteria, eukaryota, and archaea on the mission. The planetary society anticipates flying 10 individual organisms in 30 self-contained samples, i.e., each will be flown in triplicate for better science results. In addition, one or more natural native soil samples will be flown in their own self contained capsule. [ [http://planetary.org/programs/projects/life/facts.html Projects: LIFE Experiment: Phobos General FAQ] ]

The mass of the bio-module will be 100 grams or less. The current design is a short cylinder, looking much like a hockey puck, but smaller. The bio-module will provide 30 small tubes (3 milimeter in diameter) for individual microbe samples. It will also accommodate a native sample of bacteria -- derived from a permafrost region on Earth -- within a cavity 26mm in diameter. [ [http://planetary.org/programs/projects/life/facts.html Projects: LIFE Experiment: Phobos General FAQ] ]

The Phobos-Grunt mission is currently scheduled for launch in October 2009. The return vehicle will be back on Earth in 2012.

References


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