EXPOSE, an astrobiological exposure facility on the international space station - from proposal to flight.
Following an European Space Agency announcement of opportunity in 1996 for "Externally mounted payloads for 1st utilization phase" on the International Space Station (ISS), scientists working in the fields of astrobiology proposed experiments aiming at longterm exposure of a variety of chemical compounds and extremely resistant microorganisms to the hostile space environment. The ESA exposure facility EXPOSE was built and an operations' concept was prepared. The EXPOSE experiments were developed through an intensive pre-flight experiment verification test program. 12 years later, two sets of astrobiological experiments in two EXPOSE facilities have been successfully launched to the ISS for external exposure for up to 1.5 years. EXPOSE-E, now installed at the balcony of the European Columbus module, was launched in February 2008, while EXPOSE-R took off to the ISS in November 2008 and was installed on the external URM-D platform of the Russian Zvezda module in March 2009.
Rabbow
Elke
E
German Aerospace Center DLR, Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Linder Hoehe, Koeln, Germany. elke.rabbow@dlr.de
Horneck
Gerda
G
Rettberg
Petra
P
Schott
Jobst-Ulrich
JU
Panitz
Corinna
C
L'Afflitto
Andrea
A
von Heise-Rotenburg
Ralf
R
Willnecker
Reiner
R
Baglioni
Pietro
P
Hatton
Jason
J
Dettmann
Jan
J
Demets
René
R
Reitz
Günther
G
D018480:Astronauts; D004867:Equipment Design / Q000295:instrumentation*; D018559:Exobiology; D005118:Extraterrestrial Environment; D005160:Facility Design and Construction / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D007390:International Agencies / Q000458:organization & administration; D007753:Laboratories / Q000458:organization & administration; D050296:Microbial Viability; D013026:Space Flight; D018531:Spacecraft