Microbial biodiversity assessment of the European Space Agency's ExoMars 2016 mission

Microbiome
Kaisa KoskinenChristine Moissl-Eichinger

Abstract

The ExoMars 2016 mission, consisting of the Trace Gas Orbiter and the Schiaparelli lander, was launched on March 14 2016 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan and reached its destination in October 2016. The Schiaparelli lander was subject to strict requirements for microbial cleanliness according to the obligatory planetary protection policy. To reach the required cleanliness, the ExoMars 2016 flight hardware was assembled in a newly built, biocontrolled cleanroom complex at Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy. In this study, we performed microbiological surveys of the cleanroom facilities and the spacecraft hardware before and during the assembly, integration and testing (AIT) activities. Besides the European Space Agency (ESA) standard bioburden assay, that served as a proxy for the microbiological contamination in general, we performed various alternative cultivation assays and utilised molecular techniques, including quantitative PCR and next generation sequencing, to assess the absolute and relative abundance and broadest diversity of microorganisms and their signatures in the cleanroom and on the spacecraft hardware. Our results show that the bioburden, detected microbial contamination and microbial diversity decreased continuously ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 2, 2018·Astrobiology·Ying ZhangZhao-Qian Wang
Apr 17, 2020·Frontiers in Microbiology·Jana FahrionPetra Rettberg
Sep 25, 2020·International Journal of Molecular Sciences·Irina BuchovecPranciškus Vitta
Feb 20, 2021·Microbiology Resource Announcements·Velislava IlievaMichael C Macey

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Datasets Mentioned

BETA
PRJEB15908

Methods Mentioned

BETA
ribotyping
PCR
amplicon sequencing

Software Mentioned

PICRUSt
Qiime
Cytoscape
BioTyper
Calypso
ExoMars
Barchart
mothur
Galaxy

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