Heidelberg 2006 – wissenschaftliches Programm
Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Downloads | Hilfe
EP: Extraterrestrische Physik
EP 19: Astrobiologie
EP 19.6: Fachvortrag
Donnerstag, 16. März 2006, 15:30–15:45, B
The experiment Lichens-Biopan 5 at Foton M-2 mission: test of survival capacity in space — •Rosa de la Torre 1, Gerda Horneck2, and Leopoldo Garcia Sancho3 — 1INTA, Dpm. Earth Observation, Crta. Ajlavir, km.4, 28850-Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain — 2DLR, Institut für Luft- und Raumfahrtmedizin, Abteilung Strahlenbiologie, D-51170 Köln, Germany — 3Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040-Madrid, Spain
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 were done for the LICHENS experiment included at the ESA Biopan-facility, located at the outer shell of the satellite Foton M-2. Launching was the 31th of Mai 2005 from Baikonur. One of this species, Rhizocarpon geographicum selected at a high mountain region, has been systematically studied in the natural environment (Sierra de Gredos, Central Spain, 2000 m altitude) as well as under simulated 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, Germany). Rhizocarpon geographicum was extremely resistant to this conditions. But surprising results were obtained after Foton M-2 flight, showing lichens a recovery of the photosynthetic activity in a 90-100%: a high survival rate to space vacuum, extreme temperatures, complete spectrum of solar UV light and cosmic radiation during 15 days was shown.