NASA’s BioSentinel has carried living organisms farther from Earth than ever before – more than one million miles into Deep Space. Aboard the shoebox-sized CubeSat are microorganisms in the form of yeast – the very same yeast that makes bread rise and beer brew.
BioSentinel was 655,730 miles from Earth when the BioSentinel team at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley sent commands to the spacecraft to kick off the initial experiment for the first long-duration biology study in deep space. Scientists can now see how living organisms respond to deep space radiation.
Illustration of BioSentinel spacecraft flying in heliocentric orbit. BioSentinel will detect and measure the impact of space radiation on living organisms, specifically yeast, over long durations in deep space. Image credit: NASA/Daniel Rutter
Artemis missions at the Moon will prepare humans to travel on increasingly farther and longer-duration missions to destinations like Mars.
Because yeast cells have similar biological mechanisms to human cells, including DNA damage and repair, studying yeast in space will help us better understand the risks of space radiation to humans and other biological organisms. BioSentinel’s science results will fill critical gaps in knowledge about the health risks posed by space radiation in deep space.
BioSentinel in Deep Space
BioSentinel – which launched aboard Artemis I – is orbiting the Sun, positioned beyond Earth’s protective magnetic field. There, the CubeSat will run a series of experiments over the next five to six months.
NASA invites the public to virtually ride along with BioSentinel’s deep space journey using NASA’s “Eyes on the Solar System” visualization tool, a digital solar system model. This real-time simulated view of our solar system runs on real data. The positions of the planets, moons, and spacecraft – including BioSentinel – are shown where they are right now.
You can adjust the illumination level on the spacecraft by clicking on the show/hide settings button in the bottom right of the screen.
Once opened, you can toggle between flood, shadow, and natural lighting. Additionally, you can use time controls – at the bottom of the screen – to fast-forward or rewind time in the simulated view, to preview BioSentinel’s future trajectory or see a recap of its prior path.