Lichens survive in space aboard ESA's Foton M-2 mission launched into low-Earth orbit by a Russian Soyuz rocket, 31 May. After reaching orbit, the Biopan facility containing the lichens opened to expose them to the vacuum, radiation and wide temperature fluctuations of space for 14.6 days. It closed again for reentry and landing by parachute. The samples were examined at the ESA research facility in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

The survival rate exceeded 90%, and photosynthesis was not impaired, according to the scientist in charge of the experiment, Leopoldo García Sancho of the Complutense University of Madrid. The results "would support the theory of panspermia," he said.

This links to images from the Biopan 4 and 5 missions:

http://www.astrobiology.nl/pictures/index.php

Next time they should send up samples from the little patch of crab grass I've been fighting in my back lawn. Nothing can kill that stuff.

Bamboo. You want to spread life through the universe, fly bamboo shoots on penetrators!

What no bubbles? Results of the ARIEL experiment from Foton-M2 mission

The Foton-M2 space flight mission, deployed in Low-Earth Orbit between 31 May
and 16 June 2005, has produced some very interesting results in the area of
fluid physics. The ARIEL experiment, flown in ESA’s FluidPac instrument as part
of the Foton-M2 payload was investigating how the application of an electric
field to a liquid in weightlessness affects the boiling process.

More at:

http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEM2JH0VRHE_research_0.html

No. Make the penetrators *out* of bamboo shoots!

Bob Shaw

EXO LIFE

Panspermia - A Radiating Experience

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Pansperm...Experience.html

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 07, 2006 - In this interview with Astrobiology
Magazine, Gerda Horneck of the German Aerospace Center discusses the effects of
space radiation on life. She has spent her career studying the controversial
concept of Panspermia – that life could be transported between different planets
by meteorites. She has also looked at issues faced by human astronauts as they
venture into space and explore other worlds.


Extremophile Bacteria Do One Job In Daylight And Another At Night

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Extremop...r_At_Night.html

Texas State research sheds new light on panspermia

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=19104

"When the space shuttle Columbia broke apart during reentry Feb. 1, 2003, more
than 80 on-board science experiments were lost in the fiery descent. Texas State
University-San Marcos biologist Robert McLean, however, has salvaged some
unexpected science from the wreckage. A strain of slow-growing bacteria survived
the crash, a discovery which may have significant implications for the concept of
panspermia."

Better than that - there was an experiment with worms aboard Columbia, and they, too, survived the destruction of the Orbiter. The canister inside which they were being held was recovered intact several months later - but none of the worms which had flown aboard Columbia were by then alive, having died of old age! Instead, the canister was inhabited by subsequent generations of the little blighters, all descended from the astro-worms...

Bob Shaw

Survival in Space: An Interview With Astrobiologist Charles Cockell (Part 2)

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.nl.html?pid=20573

"What I'm doing, in common with many other European scientists, is to select
various organisms that can survive extreme conditions, and to send them into
Earth orbit to see how they respond to the conditions of space. We're interested
in the survival of microbes in extreme space conditions from a planetary
protection point of view."

-- Contemplating Craters: An Interview With Astrobiologist Charles Cockell (Part 1)

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.nl.html?pid=20572

"One of the things I'm interested in as a microbiologist is the way in which
asteroid and comet impacts might create new opportunities for life. We've been
doing work in a number of craters, including the Haughton crater in the Canadian
High Arctic, and also the Chesapeake Bay impact crater, which is an 80-kilometer
diameter crater in the US. One of the things we find is that the massive energy of
impacts can shatter rocks and create habitats for microorganisms."