About
214
Publications
51,843
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
3,953
Citations
Introduction
Skills and Expertise
Additional affiliations
January 2012 - present
January 2004 - December 2012
January 2008 - present
Publications
Publications (214)
As humans advance their presence in space and seek to improve the quality of life on Earth, a variety of science questions in support of these two objectives can be answered using the Moon. In this paper, we present a concept for an integrated mission focused on answering fundamental and applied biological questions on the Moon: BioMoon. The missio...
Space experiments are a technically challenging but a scientifically important part of astrobiology and astrochemistry research. The International Space Station (ISS) is an excellent example of a highly successful and long-lasting research platform for experiments in space, that has provided a wealth of scientific data over the last two decades. Ho...
Cyanobacteria are gaining considerable interest as a method of supporting the long-term presence of humans on the Moon and settlements on Mars due to their ability to produce oxygen and their potential as bio-factories for space biotechnology/synthetic biology and other applications. Since many unknowns remain in our knowledge to bridge the gap and...
Two rover missions to Mars aim to detect biomolecules as a sign of extinct or extant life with, among other instruments , Raman spectrometers. However, there are many unknowns about the stability of Raman-detectable bio-molecules in the martian environment, clouding the interpretation of the results. To quantify Raman-detectable biomolecule stabili...
With future long-term space exploration and life detection missions on Mars, understanding the microbial survival beyond Earth as well as the identification of past life traces on other planetary bodies becomes increasingly important. The series of the Tanpopo space mission experiments target a long-term exposure (one to three years) of microorgani...
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station is an artificial satellite (i.e. a type of orbital spaceflight). Stations must have docking ports to allow...
The identification of traces of life beyond Earth (e.g., Mars, icy moons) is a challenging task because terrestrial chemical-based molecules may be destroyed by the harsh conditions experienced on extraterrestrial planetary surfaces. For this reason, studying the effects on biomolecules of extremophilic microorganisms through astrobiological ground...
The identification of reliable biomarkers, such as amino acids, is key for the search of extraterrestrial life. A large number of microorganisms metabolize, synthesize, take up and excrete amino acids as part of the amino acid metabolism during aerobic and/or anaerobic respiration or in fermentation. In this work, we investigated whether the anaero...
The Moon is characterised by extremely harsh conditions due to ultraviolet irradiation, wide temperature extremes, vacuum resulting from the absence of an atmosphere, and high ionising radiation. Therefore, its surface may provide a unique platform to investigate the effects of such conditions. For lunar exploration with the Lunar Gateway platform,...
The success of an astrobiological search for life campaign on Mars, or other planetary bodies in the Solar System, relies on the detectability of past or present microbial life traces, namely, biosignatures. Spectroscopic methods require little or no sample preparation, can be repeated almost endlessly, and can be performed in contact or even remot...
Mars is a primary target of astrobiological interest: its past environmental conditions may have been favourable to the emergence of a prebiotic chemistry and, potentially, biological activity. In situ exploration is currently underway at the Mars surface, and the subsurface (2 m depth) will be explored in the future ESA ExoMars mission. In this co...
The extremophile lichen Circinaria gyrosa (C. gyrosa) is one of the selected species within the BIOMEX (Biology and Mars Experiment) experiment. Here we present the Raman study of a biohint found in this lichen, called whewellite (calcium oxalate monohydrate), and other organic compounds and mineral products of the biological activity of the astrob...
Dried biofilms of Chroococcidiopsis sp. CCMEE 029 were revived after a 672-day exposure to space vacuum outside the International Space Station during the EXPOSE-R2 space mission. After retrieval, they were air-dried stored for 3.5 years. Space vacuum reduced cell viability and increased DNA damage compared to air-dried storage for 6 years under la...
Background
Extreme terrestrial, analogue environments are widely used models to study the limits of life and to infer habitability of extraterrestrial settings. In contrast to Earth’s ecosystems, potential extraterrestrial biotopes are usually characterized by a lack of oxygen.
Methods
In the MASE project (Mars Analogues for Space Exploration), we...
Whether terrestrial life can withstand the martian environment is of paramount interest for planetary protection measures and space exploration. To understand microbial survival potential in Mars-like conditions, several fungal and bacterial samples were launched in September 2019 on a large NASA scientific balloon flight to the middle stratosphere...
The survival limits of the desert cyanobacterium Chroococcidiopsis were challenged by rewetting dried biofilms and dried biofilms exposed to 1.5 × 10³ kJ/m² of a Mars-like UV, after 7 years of air-dried storage. PCR-stop assays revealed the presence of DNA lesions in dried biofilms and an increased accumulation in dried-UV-irradiated biofilms. Diff...
The halophilic archaeon Halococcus morrhuae and the biofilm‐forming bacterium Halomonas muralis were exposed to space conditions during the EXPOSE‐R2 mission. Evidence for both strains co‐existing on a mural in the castle Herberstein (Austria) has been found and here we tested the theory that the biofilm produced by Hlm. muralis may act as a protec...
Background
The extraordinarily resistant bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans withstands harsh environmental conditions present in outer space. Deinococcus radiodurans was exposed for 1 year outside the International Space Station within Tanpopo orbital mission to investigate microbial survival and space travel. In addition, a ground-based simulation...
As part of the Biology and Mars Experiment (BIOMEX; ILSRA 2009-0834), samples of the lichen Circinaria gyrosa were placed on the exposure platform EXPOSE-R2, on the International Space Station (ISS) and exposed to space and to a Mars-simulated environment for 18 months (2014-2016) to study: (1) resistance to space and Mars-like conditions and (2) b...
As part of the Biology and Mars Experiment (BIOMEX; ILSRA 2009-0834), samples of the lichen Circinaria gyrosa were placed on the exposure platform EXPOSE-R2, on the International Space Station (ISS) and exposed to space and to a Mars-simulated environment for 18 months (2014–2016) to study: (1) resistance to space and Mars-like conditions and (2) b...
Five bacterial (facultatively) anaerobic strains, namely Buttiauxella sp. MASE-IM-9, Clostridium sp. MASE-IM-4, Halanaerobium sp. MASE-BB-1, Trichococcus sp. MASE-IM-5, and Yersinia intermedia MASE-LG-1 isolated from different extreme natural environments were subjected to Mars relevant environmental stress factors in the laboratory under controlle...
Five bacterial (facultatively) anaerobic strains, namely Buttiauxella sp. MASE-IM-9, Clostridium sp. MASE-IM-4, Halanaerobium sp. MASE-BB-1, Trichococcus sp. MASE-IM-5, and Yersinia intermedia MASE-LG-1 isolated from different extreme natural environments were subjected to Mars relevant environmental stress factors in the laboratory under controlle...
The icy satellites of Jupiter and Saturn are perhaps the most promising places in the Solar System regarding habitability. However, the potential habitable environments are hidden underneath km-thick ice shells. The discovery of Enceladus’ plume by the Cassini mission has provided vital clues in our understanding of the processes occurring within t...
The evolution of the solar system and the origin of life remain some of the most intriguing questions for humankind. Addressing these questions experimentally is challenging due to the difficulty of mimicking environmental conditions representative for Early Earth and/or space conditions in general in ground-based laboratories. Performing experimen...
Plant cultivation in large-scale closed environments is challenging and several key technologies necessary for space-based plant production are not yet space-qualified or remain in early stages of development. The EDEN ISS project (EC Horizon 2020 RIA, grant no. 636501, https://eden-iss.net/) developed and demonstrated higher plant cultivation tech...
The cold, arid, remotely located and perennially ice covered environment of the Antarctic ice sheet is the most hostile place on Earth. It has long been considered an analogue to how life might persist in the frozen landscape of the major Astrobiological targets of our solar system such as Mars or the Jupiter’s ice-covered moon Europa. In the frame...
The survival limits of the desert cyanobacterium Chroococcidiopsis were challenged by rewetting dried biofilms and dried biofilms exposed to 1.5 × 10³ kJ/m² of a Mars-like UV, after 7 years of air-dried storage. PCR-stop assays revealed the presence of DNA lesions in dried biofilms and an increased accumulation in dried-UV-irradiated biofilms. Diff...
The evolution of the solar system and the origin of life remain some of the most intriguing questions for humankind. Addressing these questions experimentally is challenging due to the difficulty of mimicking environmental conditions representative for Early Earth and/or space conditions in general in ground-based laboratories. Performing experimen...
One of the main objectives for astrobiology is to unravel and explore the habitability of environments beyond Earth, paying special attention to Mars. If the combined environmental stress factors on Mars are compatible with life or if they were less harsh in the past, to investigate the traces of past or present life is critical to understand its p...
Introduction: On Earth extreme environments are inhabited by a variety of microorganisms adapted to their specific habitat. Such extremophiles are useful model organisms to study the potential survivability of Earth organisms on Mars. Especially the Martian surface is characterised by deleterious environmental parameters, e.g. very low water activi...
The polyextremophile, gram-positive bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans can withstand harsh conditions of real and simulated outer space environment, e.g., UV and ionizing radiation. A long-term space exposure of D. radiodurans has been performed in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in frames of the Tanpopo orbital mission aiming to investigate the possibility o...
To ensure that scientific investments in space exploration are not compromised by terrestrial contamination of celestial bodies, special care needs to be taken to preserve planetary conditions for future astrobiological exploration. Significant effort has been made and is being taken to address planetary protection in the context of inner Solar Sys...
Chroococcidiopsis were exposed to low Earth conditions by using the EXPOSE-R2 facility outside the International Space Station. During the space mission, samples in Tray 1 (space vacuum and solar radiation, from λ ≈ 110 nm) and Tray 2 (Mars-like UV flux, λ > 200 nm and Mars-like atmosphere) received total UV (200–400 nm) fluences of about 4.58 × 10...
A kombucha multimicrobial culture (KMC) was exposed to simulated Mars-like conditions in low Earth orbit (LEO). The study was part of the BIOlogy and Mars EXperiment (BIOMEX), which was accommodated in the European Space Agency’s EXPOSE-R2 facility, outside the International Space Station. The aim of the study was to investigate the capability of a...
BIOMEX (BIOlogy and Mars EXperiment) is an ESA/Roscosmos space exposure experiment housed within the exposure facility EXPOSE-R2 outside the Zvezda module on the International Space Station (ISS). The design of the multiuser facility supports—among others—the BIOMEX investigations into the stability and level of degradation of space-exposed biosign...
As a part of the European Space Agency mission "EXPOSE-R2" on the International Space Station (ISS), the BIOMEX (Biology and Mars Experiment) experiment investigates the habitability of Mars and the limits of life. In preparation for the mission, experimental verification tests and scientific verification tests simulating different combinations of...
A kombucha multimicrobial culture (KMC) was exposed to simulated Mars-like conditions in low-Earth orbit (LEO). The study was part of the Biology and Mars Experiment (BIOMEX), which was accommodated in the European Space Agency's EXPOSE-R2 facility, outside the International Space Station. The aim of the study was to investigate the capability of a...
The search for life beyond Earth involves investigation into the responses of model organisms to the deleterious effects of space. In the frame of the BIOlogy and Mars Experiment, as part of the European Space Agency (ESA) space mission EXPOSE-R2 in low Earth orbit (LEO), dried colonies of the Antarctic cryptoendolithic black fungus Cryomyces antar...
The evolution of the solar system and the origin of life remain some of the most intriguing questions for humankind. Addressing these questions experimentally is challenging due to the difficulty to mimic environmental conditions representative for Early Earth and/or space conditions in general in ground based laboratories. Performing experiments d...
Five (facultative) anaerobic strains, namely Buttiauxella sp. MASE-IM-9, Clostridium sp. MASE-IM-4, Halanaerobium sp. MASE-BB-1, Trichococcus sp. MASE-IM-5, and Yersinia intermedia MASE-LG-1 from different extreme terrestrial environments were subjected to Mars relevant environmental stress factors (low water activity, oxidizing compounds, ionizing...
Exploration of the solar system, needs science and technology support to work at a merged way. Space platforms, such as EXPOSE, are a priority for the performance of experiments which are focused on the exploration of the limits of terrestrial life, trying to get responses to some questions, such as the 1) survival capacity of biological organisms...
Up to this date no definitive evidence for extra-terrestrial life has been found. However, the search fascinates mankind and it is very likely that one of the >2300 identified, habitable exoplanets (April 2018) may host a yet unknown kind of. It can be anticipated that our solar system harbours celestial bodies with living organisms apart from Eart...
The polyextremophile, gram-positive bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans is able to withstand harsh conditions of real and simulated outer space environment, e.g., extreme temperature fluctuations, desiccation, UV radiation, and ionizing radiation. A long-term space exposure of D. radiodurans has been performed in exposure experiments at low Earth orb...
The most hostile place on Earth with the lowest temperature ever recorded of -89.2 °C is the Antarctic ice sheet. This cold, arid, remotely located and perennially ice covered environment has long been considered an analogue to how life might persist in the frozen landscape of the major Astrobiological targets of our solar system suchasMarsortheJup...
The BIOMEX (BIOlogy and Mars Experiment) is part of the European Space Agency (ESA) space mission EXPOSE-R2 in Low-Earth Orbit, devoted to exposing microorganisms for 1.5 years to space and simulated Mars conditions on the International Space Station. In preparing this mission, dried colonies of the Antarctic cryptoendolithic black fungus Cryomyces...
Exploration of the solar system is a priority research area of the AstRoMap European Astrobiology Roadmap (Horneck et al., 2015) [1], focused on various research topics, one of them is “Life and Habitability” and an other one is “Biomarkers for easy the detection of life”. Therefore “space platforms and laboratories” are necessary, such as EXPOSE,...
Four facultative anaerobic and two obligate anaerobic bacteria were isolated from extreme environments (deep subsurface halite mine, sulfidic anoxic spring, mineral-rich river) in the frame MASE (Mars Analogues for Space Exploration) project. The isolates were investigated under anoxic conditions for their survivability after desiccation up to six...
The artificial mineralization of a polyresistant bacterial strain isolated from an acidic, oligotrophic lake was carried out to better understand microbial (i) early mineralization and (ii) potential for further fossilisation. Mineralization was conducted in mineral matrixes commonly found on Mars and Early-Earth, silica and gypsum, for 6 months. S...
The limits of life of aerobic microorganisms are well understood, but the responses of anaerobic microorganisms to individual and combined extreme stressors are less well known. Motivated by an interest in understanding the survivability of anaerobic microorganisms under Martian conditions, we investigated the responses of a new isolate, Yersinia i...
Results of the API R 20 A and Rapid ID 32 A tests.
+ Y. intermedia MASE-LG-1 metabolized the named substance; − Y. intermedia MASE-LG-1 did not metabolize the named substance.
(DOCX)
Dendrogram Y. intermedia MASE-LG-1.
Neighbor-joining tree based on 16S rDNA sequences showing the phylogenetic position of Y. intermedia MASE-LG-1 related to 14 species of the genus Yersinia. DNA sequences were aligned using BioEdit. The dendrogram was constructed by using MEGA6. Bar: 0.01 substitutions per nucleotide position.
(TIF)
Outer space, the final frontier, is a hostile and unforgiving place for any form of life as we know it. The unique environment of space allows for a close simulation of Mars surface conditions that cannot be simulated as accurately on the Earth. For this experiment, we tested the resistance of Deinococcus radiodurans to survive exposure to simulate...
The presence of water is central to when, where, and under what conditions, past or present life may have existed. Increasing evidence suggests that liquid water is present on bodies in the outer Solar System, for example large aqueous brine oceans beneath the outer ice shells of the icy moons, Europa, Ganymede and Enceladus [1,2]. Measurements fro...
On July 23, 2014, the Progress cargo spacecraft 56P was launched from Baikonur to the International Space Station (ISS), carrying EXPOSE-R2, the third ESA (European Space Agency) EXPOSE facility, the second EXPOSE on the outside platform of the Russian Zvezda module, with four international astrobiological experiments into space. More than 600 biol...
Assessing the habitability of Mars and detecting life, if it ever existed there, depends on knowledge of whether the combined environmental stresses experienced on Mars are compatible with life as we know it and whether a record of that life could ever be detected. So far, only few investigations were performed to understand the combined effect of...
Astrobiology seeks to understand the limits of life and to determine the physiology of organisms in order to better assess the habitability of other worlds. To successfully achieve these goals we require microorganisms from environments on Earth that approximate to extraterrestrial environments in terms of physical and/or chemical conditions. The m...
Scientists use the Earth as a tool for astrobiology by analyzing planetary field analogues (i.e. terrestrial samples and field sites that resemble planetary bodies in our Solar System). In addition, they expose the selected planetary field analogues in simulation chambers to conditions that mimic the ones of planets, moons and Low Earth Orbit (LEO)...
<