Abstract
In light of future missions beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) and the potential establishment of bases on the Moon and Mars, the effects of the deep space environment on biology need to be examined in order to develop protective countermeasures. Although many biological experiments have been performed in space since the 1960s, most have occurred in LEO and for only short periods of time. These LEO missions have studied many biological phenomena in a variety of model organisms, and have utilized a broad range of technologies. However, given the constraints of the deep space environment, upcoming deep space biological missions will be largely limited to microbial organisms and plant seeds using miniaturized technologies. Small satellites such as CubeSats are capable of querying relevant space environments using novel, miniaturized instruments and biosensors. CubeSats also provide a low-cost alternative to larger, more complex missions, and require minimal crew support, if any. Several have been deployed in LEO, but the next iterations of biological CubeSats will travel beyond LEO. They will utilize biosensors that can better elucidate the effects of the space environment on biology, allowing humanity to return safely to deep space, venturing farther than ever before.
Highlights
NASA currently has plans to return humans to the Moon and eventually land crewed missions on Mars
Perspective is to provide a brief introduction to examples of past and current technologies in space biology research, and how they influence the development of biosensor technologies for future missions to deep space
As highlighted in the preceding sections, technology continues to evolve as humanity once again prepares to embark upon deep space missions
Summary
The NASA Artemis-1 vehicle will carry five biological payloads beyond LEO; four will be inside the Orion multicrew capsule carrying model organisms such as fungi, algae, and plant seeds, and the BioSentinel satellite will carry the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae [7] These model organisms were selected because they share similarities with human cells, and because they can remain viable in stasis for long periods of time. Microbial-derived biosensors aboard CubeSats have been used, for example, to investigate the effect of microgravity on antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria and to study the effect of a fungicide on yeast cells [8,9] These recent studies have been built on a foundation of decades of space biology research
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