ISRO writes its first 'POEM' to study how life works in space

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India for the very first time is flying biological experiments into space using a homegrown rocket. The next launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will see not one, but three biological experiments with living cells being rocketed into space. Keeping living things alive in the hostile near vacuum of space is a hugely challenging task.


India will fly living biological material from plants such as spinach, cowpea, and gut bacteria - three different experiments are being planned to be flown onboard the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module-4 (POEM-4).


Keeping any organism alive in space is a challenge as all life support systems have to be provided in a small sealed box. The results of the experiments also have to be gathered remotely. This is on the fourth stage of the PSLV which the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) makes available to academics to conduct experiments in the real space environment.


"In a first such venture, ISRO is flying live biological experiments into space from India. We would have had to start studies on astrobiology sooner than later, and now ISRO will write a whole new poem using the PSLV experimental platform and let Indian biologists explore all aspects of how life can survive in the hostile environment of space," ISRO Chairman Dr S Somanath said.


The next mission of the PSLV named C-60, scheduled very soon, is actually a hugely experimental mission with the main experiment being the Space Docking Experiment (SPADEX) where ISRO will show for the first time docking and undocking of two Indian satellites in space.


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A flask with special cells of the spinach plant that will be flown into space by ISRO. Photo courtesy: Amity University, Mumbai



But in an effort to promote testing of new ideas and technologies, ISRO has made the POEM platform available to Indian start-ups and its own in-house scientific teams to try out novel ideas. In the next mission, 24 payloads will be tested on the fourth stage of the PSLV.


The biological experiments being flown may seem small and elementary in comparison to the huge biological experiments conducted onboard global space stations, but then at some point ISRO had to initiate studies of how life forms perform in space.


It is a small biological step by ISRO that will propel India closer to the Gaganyaan mission where India seeks to fly an Indian into space from Indian soil on an Indian rocket. More detailed experiments could also be planned on the Bhartiya Antariksha Station that will come up by 2035.


Scientists from Amity University, Mumbai are testing how cells of common spinach perform in the near zero gravity environment of space. Scientists from the Amity Centre for Excellence in Astrobiology led by Dr AW Santhosh Kumar, Vice Chancellor, and his nine-member team are trying to decipher how a mass of cells derived from Spinacea oleracea will perform in space.


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The astrobiology team from the Mumbai-based Amity Centre for Excellence in Astrobiology led Dr AW Santhosh Kumar, Vice Chancellor, along with the small instrument seen in the foreground. Photo courtesy: Amity University, Mumbai



Rather than flying full spinach plants tissue culture, grown cells will be used as an experimental model.


Dr Kumar said his team has designed a biological payload to be set on orbit through ISRO with an objective to study the possibility of food and nutrition during space missions. The experiment aims at real time monitoring of the biological payload in space.


Dr Kumar in his earlier avatar as a researcher in the US has flown human cell samples to the International Space Station and so, he has experience of conducting astrobiology experiments.


In another live experiment using gut bacteria, undergraduate students from RV College of Engineering, Bengaluru are flying RVSAT-1, India's first microbiological payload.


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PSLV that will fly the biology experiments and the SPADEX mission



In an enclosed capsule, the gut bacterium Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron will be sent into space to better understand them. The team wants to explore the implications of bacterial growth on gut health and gene regulation, providing valuable data for understanding human physiology in space.


An in-house team of ISRO's Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, using the Compact Research Module for orbital Plant Studies (CROPS) will demonstrate how seeds and leaves of cowpea germinate in near zero gravity environment of space. Seedlings lose orientation when grown in microgravity conditions.


"Studying plant growth in space is new to ISRO and the 15-member team is very excited to see the results," said T Latha, Deputy Director of VSSC.


Dr Somanath said these are the first baby steps that could result in mega biological experiments to be undertaken onboard the Bharatiya Antariksha station.


"Supporting startups and researchers outside ISRO greatly helps India's large scientific pool get a feel of the space environment," Dr Somanath said.