INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF THE ROCKET'S SUBORBITAL FLIGHT ON BIOFILM, ENZYMES AND BIOSYNTHESIS ON AUTONOMOUS, MODULAR AND SCALABLE PLATFORM FOR CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS OF AN ASTROBIOTECHNOLOGICAL NATURE

Bartosz Rybacki; Wojciech Wysocki; Marcin Jasiukowicz; Bartosz Rybak; Juian Lützen; Natalia Czortek; Kacper Loret; Szymon Krawczuk; Norbert Szulc; Tomasz Zajkowski; Alec Vallota-Eastman; Julia Godlewska; Beata Krawczyk

INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF THE ROCKET'S SUBORBITAL FLIGHT ON BIOFILM, ENZYMES AND BIOSYNTHESIS ON AUTONOMOUS, MODULAR AND SCALABLE PLATFORM FOR CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS OF AN ASTROBIOTECHNOLOGICAL NATURE

Abstract

With new incentives for human space exploration, biotechnological experiments in orbit became imperative.
Answering this need, we build an autonomous, modular, and scalable platform that enables those experiments on
rockets. We called it AMBER. The aim of the payload of the R6 suborbital rocket is to perform an experiment to
study the influence of rocket flights on biofilm, molecular biology enzymes and biosynthesis using our platform. For
this purpose, we use the interdisciplinary character of our team to ensure full integrity, reliability, and operational
efficiency. The experiment carried out during the Spaceport America Cup competition constitutes the first stage of
our team’s three-stage programme of astrobiotechnological experiments, which scientific value was confirmed by a
letter of recommendation from the scientist working for NASA Ames Research Center. Two 96 well plates, as
operational sectors, were subjected to the same effects of G-force, rocket launch velocity, temperature, pressure and
vibration profile. In the experiment we used 3D printed elements, Peltier cells, GPS, sensors measuring vibrations,
temperature, pressure and G-force. These instruments enable exact characterisation conditions experienced by
biological samples.