What does NASA send yeast to space for?

According to the plan, NASA will put 2 strains of brewer's yeast on the CubeSat mini satellite to accompany the mission to the Moon - Artemis 1. What do they want to do?

Cosmic radiation remains a significant danger to space explorers: the invisible bombardment of heavy atomic particles with high energy from solar flares and supernovae can cause injury. for the human body.

NASA uses brewer's yeast to study cosmic radiation

Unfortunately, cosmic radiation is difficult to reproduce in the laboratory. This makes it a challenge to study its harmful effects.

According to Inverse news site, in an effort to figure out how to deal with the types of cosmic radiation, NASA scientists have launched a study called "BioSentinel Mission". .

They placed two strains of brewer's yeast (also known as Saccharomyces cerevisiae), one powerful and one sensitive, into the CubeSat mini-satellite to accompany the mission to the Moon - Artemis 1.

After reaching the Moon, it is expected that at the end of 2022, the satellite carrying BioSentinel will separate, fly over the Moon to orbit the Sun.

The BioSentinel is housed in a CubeSat - a small satellite about the size of a cereal box - and will detach from the Artemis 1 mission rocket when it reaches the Moon.

The Artemis 1 mission will last about 3 weeks in orbit, but the CubeSat and BioSentinel will stay in space longer, about 6 months. Scientists can remotely control yeast activities and accompanying experiments in the CubeSat satellite.

Brewer's yeast - a single-celled organism - has an analogue to the human body. The enzyme repairs DNA damage - a major consequence of radiation - similar to how human cells work.

NASA hopes the yeast that flies through space will reveal new information about how cosmic radiation might affect its astronauts, which could help them figure out how to keep people moving in space for long periods of time. than.