BioSentinel: A 6U Nanosatellite for Deep-Space Biological Science

Space Biology Research and Biosensor Technologies: Past, Present, and Future

“…The newest biological satellite in the succession of NASA Ames’ biological CubeSat program is BioSentinel. BioSentinel is the first CubeSat designed to perform biological experiments in interplanetary deep space and is planned to launch as the sole biological secondary payload on NASA’s Artemis-1 rocket [ 5 , 7 , 34 ]. After deployment and a lunar fly-by, BioSentinel will reach a stable heliocentric orbit and perform experiments for a minimum of six months.…”

“…BioSentinel is a highly sophisticated and autonomous 6U CubeSat equipped with a series of subsystems designed and developed for the deep space environment, including solar panel arrays, batteries, star tracker and micro-propulsion navigation systems, transponder, antennas, and command and data handling systems. These systems occupy approximately 2U of the spacecraft [ 7 ]. The remaining 4U volume is occupied by the BioSensor payload, which contains all the instruments required to autonomously support the biological experiments.…”

“…The BioSensor also contains a Timepix-based linear energy transfer (LET) spectrometer for radiation dose measurements and particle characterization. The microfluidics system is composed of 18 fluidic cards with 16 microwells per card (total of 288 microwells) [ 7 ]. Once in space, desiccated yeast cells will be rehydrated by injection of a mixture of growth medium and a metabolic indicator dye.…”

“…These include, but are not limited to, the use of biocompatible materials and sterilization techniques, the low-cost fabrication of custom microfluidics, off-the-shelf high-precision microfluidic parts (e.g., fluidic valves, pumps, and bubble traps), an onboard LET spectrometer to enable the comparison of biological responses to space radiation to actual physical dosimetry, the inclusion of independent calibration cells for optical data normalization, the ability to store and return optical time series data, a profound increase in the capacity of sample size (288 wells compared to 48 previously), the ability to activate experiments at multiple time points and distances from Earth, and the long-term preservation of biological samples and reagents before experiment activation. These improvements are accomplished while maintaining a compact volume and relatively low cost [ 5 , 7 ]. Additionally, BioSentinel provides a new avenue for the space research community to conduct future missions using a variety of organisms and instruments in different space platforms, which are discussed in the next section.…”

“…While many space experiments have been performed utilizing higher eukaryotes, currently planned missions beyond LEO only include microbes and plant seeds [ 5 , 6 ]. The NASA Artemis-1 vehicle will carry five biological payloads beyond LEO; four will be inside the Orion multicrew capsule carrying model organisms such as fungi, algae, and plant seeds, and the BioSentinel satellite will carry the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae [ 7 ]. These model organisms were selected not only because they share similarities with human cells, but also because they can remain viable in stasis for long periods of time.…”