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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 biosignatures such as pigments, secondary metabolites, and cell surfaces in contact with a terrestrial and Mars analog mineral environment. In parallel, analysis on the viability of the investigated organisms has provided relevant data for evaluation of the habitability of Mars, for the limits of life, and for the likelihood of an interplanetary transfer of life (theory of lithopanspermia). In this project, lichens, archaea, bacteria, cyanobacteria, snow/permafrost algae, meristematic black fungi, and bryophytes from alpine and polar habitats were embedded, grown, and cultured on a mixture of martian and lunar regolith analogs or other terrestrial minerals. The organisms and regolith analogs and terrestrial mineral mixtures were then exposed to space and to simulated Mars-like conditions by way of the EXPOSE-R2 facility. In this special issue, we present the first set of data obtained in reference to our investigation into the habitability of Mars and limits of life. This project was initiated and implemented by the BIOMEX group, an international and interdisciplinary consortium of 30 institutes in 12 countries on 3 continents. Preflight tests for sample selection, results from ground-based simulation experiments, and the space experiments themselves are presented and include a complete overview of the scientific processes required for this space experiment and postflight analysis. The presented BIOMEX concept could be scaled up to future exposure experiments on the Moon and will serve as a pretest in low Earth orbit.
Aus dem Inhalt dieser Ausage: BEITRÄGE: Claudio Donati: Militärstrukturen der italienischen Staaten in der frühen Neuzeit: ein Forschungsbericht jüngster Studien; Sascha Möbius: Friedrich Engels und der Bauernkrieg in der Historiographie der DDR PROJEKTE: Andree Brumshagen: Das Bremer Stadtmilitär 1618-1810. Zur Bedeutung und Funktion des Soldaten in der reichsstädtischen Gesellschaft; Tomasz Przerwa und Grzegorz Podruczny: Festung Silberberg – Forschungsprojekt Universität zu Wroclaw; Gabriel Zeilinger: Der süddeutsche Städtekrieg 1449/50 – Fehdeorganisation und Kriegsalltag, soziale Verfasstheiten und die 'Ökonomie' des Krieges in einem Großkonflikt des 15. Jahrhunderts; Dirk Reitz: Der Wehrarchitekt der Reichsstadt – Wolf-Jacob Stromer Ratsbaumeister zu Nürnberg 1561-1614. Militärische Aspekte der Baumeisterbücher I-XII. BERICHTE: Ulla Schuh: Policey, öffentliche Ordnung und Militär. Aufgaben des Militärs zur Aufrechterhaltung "guter Policey" in der Frühneuzeit. Bericht über die 6. Tagung des Arbeitskreises "Policey/Polizei im vormodernen Europa" (APO); Daniela Morgenstern und Nele Thomsen: Tagung "Mars und die Musen" - Das Wechselspiel von Militär, Krieg und Kunst in der Frühen Neuzeit vom 22. - 24. September 2003 REZENSIONEN: Heinrich Lang: Herfried Münkler, Über den Krieg. Stationen der Kriegsge-schichte im Spiegel ihrer theoretischen Reflexion, Frankfurt am Main 2002; Martin Winter: Gerhard von Scharnhorst. Private und dienstliche Schriften, Bd. 1: Schüler, Lehrer, Kriegsteilnehmer. Kurhannover bis 1795, hrsg. von Johannes Kunisch, bearb. von Michael Sikora und Tilman Stive, Köln u. a.: Böhlau 2002; Uwe Tresp: Rainer Leng, Ars belli. Deutsche taktische und kriegstechni-sche Bilderhandschriften und Traktate im 15. und 16. Jahrhun-dert, Wiesbaden: Reichert 2002; Ewa Herfordt: Roland Vetter, "Kein Stein soll auf den anderen bleiben". Mannheims Untergang während des Pfälzischen Erbfolge-krieges im Spiegel französischer Kriegsberichte Heidelberg u.a.: Verlag Regionalkultur 2002; Daniela Feistauer: Thomas Michael Schneider, Heeresergänzung und Sozialordnung. Dienstpflichtige, Einsteher und Freiwillige in Württem-berg zur Zeit des Deutschen Bundes, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Brüssel, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaften 2002; Andrea Pühringer: Wolfgang Kruse, Die Erfindung des modernen Militarismus. Krieg, Militär und bürgerliche Gesellschaft im politischen Diskurs der Französischen Revolution 1789-1799, München: R. Oldenbourg Verlag 2003; Matthias Franz: Heinz-Dieter Heimann / Uwe Tresp (Hrsg.), Thüringische und böhmische Söldner in der Soester Fehde. Quellen zum landes-herrlichen Militärwesen im 15. Jahrhundert aus thüringischen und sächsischen Archiven, hrsg. von Heinz-Dieter Heimann und Uwe Tresp, Potsdam 2002; Holger Th. Gräf: Achim Riether, Rudolf Meyer (1605-1638). Schweizer Zeichen-kunst zwischen Spätmanierismus und Frühbarock. Katalog der Handzeichnungen, München: scaneg Verlag 2002
The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) experiment Biology and Mars Experiment (BIOMEX) is an interdisciplinary and international space research project selected by ESA. The experiment will be accommodated on the space exposure facility EXPOSE-R2 on the International Space Station (ISS) and is foreseen to be launched in 2013. The prime objective of BIOMEX is to measure to what extent biomolecules, such as pigments and cellular components, are resistant to and able to maintain their stability under space and Mars-like conditions. The results of BIOMEX will be relevant for space proven biosignature definition and for building a biosignature data base (e.g. the proposed creation of an international Raman library). The library will be highly relevant for future space missions such as the search for life on Mars. The secondary scientific objective is to analyze to what extent terrestrial extremophiles are able to survive in space and to determine which interactions between biological samples and selected minerals (including terrestrial, Moon- and Mars analogs) can be observed under space and Mars-like conditions. In this context, the Moon will be an additional platform for performing similar experiments with negligible magnetic shielding and higher solar and galactic irradiation compared to LEO. Using the Moon as an additional astrobiological exposure platform to complement ongoing astrobiological LEO investigations could thus enhance the chances of detecting organic traces of life on Mars. We present a lunar lander mission with two related objectives: a lunar lander equipped with Raman and PanCam instruments which can analyze the lunar surface and survey an astrobiological exposure platform. This dual use of testing mission technology together with geo- and astrobiological analyses will significantly increase the science return, and support the human preparation objectives. It will provide knowledge about the Moon's surface itself and, in addition, monitor the stability of life-markers, such as cells, cell components and pigments, in an extraterrestrial environment with much closer radiation properties to the surface of Mars. The combination of a Raman data base of these data together with data from LEO and space simulation experiments, will lead to further progress on the analysis and interpretation of data that we will obtain from future Moon and Mars exploration missions.