The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed seven contracts with Polish institutions and companies to carry out experiments on the International Space Station (ISS). One of them is Yeast TardigradeGene – Before We Go to Mars: Can Tardigrades Help Protect Other Organisms in Space? It is conducted by a consortium of 3 Polish universities: University of Szczecin (leader), Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and University of Silesia in Katowice. The experiment is conducted by an interdisciplinary team coordinated by prof. Ewa Szuszkiewicz from the Institute of Physics of the University of Szczecin. The other members of the team are dr hab. Franco Ferrari (Institute of Physics, University of Szczecin), dr hab. Nina Antos-Krzemińska, dr hab. Łukasz Kaczmarek and dr Andonis Karachitos, prof. Hanna Kmita (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań) and dr hab. Izabela Pomoca (University of Silesia in Katowice).
This experiment will test the survival of genetically modified yeast (enriched with tardigrade protein) in microgravity conditions, in order to determine the possibility of using them as biofactories both during space travel and on Mars or the Moon. Yeast TardigradeGene entered the flight preparation phase along with six other experiments:
- ASTROMENTALHEALTH
- HUMAN GUT MICROBIOTA
- IMMUNE MULTIOMICS
- LEOPARDISS
- SPACE VOLCANIC ALGAE
- WIRELESS ACOUSTICS
