Abstract
Sounding rockets represent an excellent platform for testing the influence of space conditions during the passage of Earth's atmosphere and re-entry on biological, physical and chemical experiments for astrobiological purposes. We designed a robust functionality biomarker assay to analyze the biological effects of suborbital spaceflights prevailing during ballistic rocket flights. During the TEXUS-49 rocket mission in March 2011, artificial plasmid DNA carrying a fluorescent marker (enhanced green fluorescent protein: EGFP) and an antibiotic resistance cassette (kanamycin/neomycin) was attached on different positions of rocket exterior; (i) circular every 90 degree on the outer surface concentrical of the payload, (ii) in the grooves of screw heads located in between the surface application sites, and (iii) on the surface of the bottom side of the payload. Temperature measurements showed two major peaks at 118 and 130°C during the 780 seconds lasting flight on the inside of the recovery module, while outer gas temperatures of more than 1000°C were estimated on the sample application locations. Directly after retrieval and return transport of the payload, the plasmid DNA samples were recovered. Subsequent analyses showed that DNA could be recovered from all application sites with a maximum of 53% in the grooves of the screw heads. We could further show that up to 35% of DNA retained its full biological function, i.e., mediating antibiotic resistance in bacteria and fluorescent marker expression in eukariotic cells. These experiments show that our plasmid DNA biomarker assay is suitable to characterize the environmental conditions affecting DNA during an atmospheric transit and the re-entry and constitute the first report of the stability of DNA during hypervelocity atmospheric transit indicating that sounding rocket flights can be used to model the high-speed atmospheric entry of organics-laden artificial meteorites.
Highlights
Search for biosignatures of lifeIn the field of astrobiology a variety of research questions are addressed including the existence of life beyond Earth as well as the impact of space and extraterrestrial environmental conditions on biomolecules and different types of organisms [1,2,3,4,5,6]
DNA of the plasmid expression vector pEGFP-C3 (Fig. 1f) was applied to the external surface of the payload stage mounted on a VSB-30 two-stage solid-fuel rocket (Fig. 1a–e), which was launched during the TEXUS-49 campaign on March 29th, 2011 from the ESRANGE Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden
DNA samples were applied to fifteen different locations: 1.) directly on the surface, 2.) into grooves of the head of screws located on the outside of the payload, and 3.) on the bottom side of the payload structure
Summary
Search for biosignatures of lifeIn the field of astrobiology a variety of research questions are addressed including the existence of life beyond Earth as well as the impact of space and extraterrestrial environmental conditions on biomolecules and different types of organisms [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The MSL has, besides the characterization of geological, geochemical, planetary and radiation processes, the goal to study organic carbon compounds, the chemical building blocks of life (C, H, O, N, P, S) as well as the existence of biosignatures, representing features of biological processes on Mars [8]. Biomarkers, usually made of complex organic compounds are e.g. macromolecules like proteins as well as nucleic acids like DNA and RNA which represent the essential basis in all living organisms on Earth. Another highly sophisticated experiment searching for biomolecular evidence of life is the planned: The Icebreaker life mission to Mars representing a search for the biomolecular evidence for life [9]. This mission will focus among others on the search for biomolecules indicating that there was or still is life on Mars, the search for organic molecules in the ground ice and survey the environmental conditions for elements and energy sources required by potential life [9]
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