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Experiment/Payload OverviewBrief Summary
Exposure Experiment (Expose) is a multi-user facility accommodating experiments in several disciplines. Expose allows short and long-term exposure of experiments to space conditions and solar UV-radiation on the International Space Station.
Principal InvestigatorInformation Pending
Payload DeveloperKayser-Threde, Munich, Germany
Sponsoring AgencyEuropean Space Agency (ESA)
Expeditions Assigned|16|17|18|19|20|
Previous ISS MissionsInformation Pending
Experiment/Payload Description
Research Summary
- Exposure Experiment (Expose) is a multi-user facility having a box-shaped structure accommodating experiments in the following disciplines: photo processing, photo-biology and exobiology.
- Expose shall be mounted on European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF) to achieve an accommodation looking towards Zenith-direction to assure maximum sun exposure.
- Expose provides common functionality and services (e.g. lid shutter mechanisms, sensors, etc.) for a controlled (long-term/short-term) environment (thermal, sun UV radiation, vacuum, microgravity, etc.) to the scientific biological experiment samples accommodated in their individual compartments.
The Exposure Experiment (Expose) includes several investigations listed below:
Lichens and Fungi Experiment (LIFE): Limits of survival: Lichens, Fungi and symbionts under simulated space conditions. Lithic fungi from extreme environments and lichens are the best adapted eukaryotes to dryness and radiations. The project aims like to test selected representatives of these organisms in order to evaluate their survival in space conditions.
Adapt: Molecular adaptation strategies of microorganisms to different space and planetary UV climate conditions. The Adapt experiment will investigate the capability of microorganisms to adapt themselves to qualitatively and quantitatively different UV levels like those on Earth and on Mars. The hypothesis to be tested experimentally is whether longer-lasting selective pressure by UV radiation of different quality results in a higher UV resistance as well as in a higher resistance against the simultaneous action of further extreme environmental factors that exist in space or on other planets like vacuum or cosmic radiation.
Prebiotic Organic Chemistry on Space Station (PROCESS): The main goal of this project is to improve our knowledge of the chemical nature and evolution of organic molecules involved in extraterrestrial environments and with exobiological implications. Many experimental programs are devoted to photochemical studies of molecules in the gaseous phase as well as in the solid state. The validity of such works and their applications to extraterrestrial environments can be questioned as long as experiments conducted in space conditions, with the full solar spectrum, especially in the short wavelengths domain, have not been implemented.
Protect: Resistance of spacecraft isolates to outer space for planetary protection purposes. It is the aim of the proposed project to experimentally investigate in situ the resistance of these extremely resistant spacecraft survivors to the environment of space. In this context it is of importance to investigate three aspects of spore resistance to extraterrestrial environments: first, the degree of resistance itself; second, the types of cellular damage sustained; and third, the mechanism(s) by which spores can withstand or repair these damages.
Seeds: Testing the plant seed as a terrestrial model for a panspermia vehicle and as a source of universal UV screens. In the first phase of this project the science team will verify the chemical basis for UV resistance in Arabidopsis seeds. In a second phase they will attempt to improve this resistance. In a third phase they will test plant seeds as part of the Expose project. Finally during a fourth phase, they propose to use a new apparatus, to better test the hypothesis that plant seeds are ideal space travellers. After exposure to space conditions, seeds will be tested for viability, and a bacterial marker gene inserted into their chromosomes will be examined in detail for damage.
Amino: Photochemical Processing of Amino Acids in Earth Orbit. The main scientific objectives of this experiment are: to determine whether a porous material protects amino acids and peptides from degradation and racemisation, i.e. the conversion of L-amino acids into a mixture of L- and D- molecules. Also to test whether photosensitive amino acid derivatives can be polymerized in grains under space conditions.
Organics: Evolution of Organic Matter in Space. The goal is to study the effects of UV radiation, low pressure, and heavy ion bombardment on organic molecules of astrophysical and exobiological interest: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules (stable & reactive species), fullerenes, kerogens of different origin, and complex mixtures: analogues of organics in meteorites.
Rose
1-Endo: Screening of Ultra-Violet Radiation in Endolithic and Microalgal Communities from Antarctica. This experiment will assess the impact of increased UV-A and UV-B radiation due to total ozone depletion on microbial primary producers (algae, cyanobacteria) from Antarctic sites under the ozone hole. It will also determine the probability for endolithic microbial communities to survive in regions where exposed communities become extinct. The findings will contribute to our understanding of the potential for such communities to have survived UV-stress in past times on Mars.
2-Osmo: Exposure of Osmophilic Microbes to Space Environment. The intention is to understand the response of microbes to space vacuum (desiccation) and to solar radiation. It will especially focus on osmophilic bacteria: Synechococcus, a halophilic cyanobacterium and Haloarcula-G, an extreme halophilic bacterium. It will asses whether the gypsum-halite and halite salts in which these micro-organisms live, as well as their high intracellular potassium concentration, play a role in protecting halophile DNA from desiccation.
3-Spores: Spores in Artificial Meteorites. This experiment will assess the protection of bacterial (Bacillus subtilis), fungal (Penicilium expansum, Thermomyces lanuginosum, Xeromyces bisporus) and lycopodial (Selaginella sp.) spores by meteorite material against space conditions: UV, vacuum, and ionising radiation.
4- Photo: DNA Photodamage. Measurements of Vacuum Solar Radiation-Induced DNA Damages within Spores. The objective of this experiment is to assess the yield and kinetics of formation of photoproducts resulting from exposure of dry DNA samples, or bacterial spores, to solar UV vacuum radiation. The samples will be exposed naked, or within artificial meteorite materials, clays, and halites.
5-Subtil: Mutational Spectra of Bacillus subtilis Spores and Plasmid DNA Exposed to High Vacuum and Solar UV Radiation in Space Environment. This experiment will determine the mutational spectra of Bacillus subtilis spores and of plasmid DNA induced by high space vacuum and by solar UV radiation. It will also study the molecular differentiation between vacuum-induced and UV-induced mutations, using a DNA-repair wild-type and a repair-deficient strains of B. subtilis.
8-Pur: Responses of Phage T7, Phage DNA, and Polycrystalline Uracil to Space Environment. The prime goal is to determine whether Phage T7, T7 DNA and poly-Uracil may be used as biological dosimeters for measuring biologically effective UV dose in the space environment.
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Images
Expose hardware. Image courtesy of ESA.+ View Larger Image
NASA Images s124e010226 (background) and s123e009654 (foreground): This image shows the location along with a close up view of the European Space Agency?s European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF) platform located externally on the Columbus module. EuTEF houses nine experiments including Exposure Experiment (Expose).+ View Larger Image
Information Provided and Updated by the ISS Program Scientist's Office