BioSentinel is a NASA spacecraft designed to study the effects of cosmic radiation on living organisms. The developers offer everyone to use the virtual service and look at what it “sees” during its journey through the Solar System.
BioSentinel spacecraft Journey
With the help of its Eyes on the Solar System visualization tool, NASA offers everyone to trace the path of the new BioSentinel spacecraft. It is a CubeSat, that is, its linear dimensions do not exceed 10 cm.
BioSentinel was launched in November 2022 as an additional load in the Artemis I mission. It lasted 26 days and successfully ended with the return of the Orion spacecraft to Earth, but BioSentinel continued its flight further.
Eyes on the Solar System allows you to see the device itself at the point in the Solar System where it is currently located. The functions of this app can change its texture and lighting. There is also a time management function, thanks to which you can see the BioSentinel at any point of its trajectory in the past or future.
Experiments with radiation
The main purpose of launching the BioSentinel spacecraft is to study cosmic radiation, including solar radiation on biological objects. For this purpose, brewer’s yeast cells are placed on board.
Yeast is stored in a container that is protected from vacuum and temperature changes in space. However, it is not protected from cosmic radiation in any way, so when the probe left the Earth’s magnetic field, the microorganisms remained defenseless against this factor.
The device will regularly notify scientists on Earth about the condition of its unicellular passengers. It is expected that this will allow people to better prepare for a flight to the Moon and Mars, who will also need similar protection.
According to www.space.com
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