Lichens Survive in Space: BIOPAN Experiment on the FOTON M-2 Mission
- Paper number
IAC-06-A1.6.02
- Author
Ms. Rosa De la Torre, Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aerospacial (INTA), Spain
- Coauthor
Dr. Gerda Horneck, Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), Germany
- Coauthor
Mr. Leopoldo Garcia Sancho, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
- Year
2006
- Abstract
Lichens are one of the most resistant organisms at Earth. They live at very extreme environments (deserts, high mountains, Antarctica, etc). Selection of two epilithic lichen species, Rhizocarpon geographicum and Xanthoria elegans, was done for the LICHENS experiment included in the ESA Biopan-facility, located at the outer shell of the satellite Foton M-2. Launching was on May 31, 2005 from Baikonur. One of the lichen species, Rhizocarpon geographicum, selected at a high mountain region of Spain (Plataforma de Gredos), has been systematically studied in the natural environment (Sierra de Gredos, Central Spain, 2000 m altitude) as well as under simu-lated space conditions at the space simulation facilities of the DLR. Sensitivity of photosystem II to different environmental conditions (dryness including vacuum treatment, high temperature fluctuations, high UV intensity) was fluorometrically measured with a MINI PAM (Walz, Ger-many). Rhizocarpon geographicum was extremely resistant to the space conditions, imposed on them. After the 15 days of the Foton M-2 flight, the lichens showed a recovery of the photosyn-thetic activity by 90-100%, even if they were exposed to the full spectrum of extraterrestrial solar UV radiation. The data demonstrate the high survival rate of Rhizocarpon geographicum to the space environment, including space vacuum, extreme temperatures, complete spectrum of solar UV radiation and cosmic radiation.
- Abstract document