EXPORT

EXPORT is an exobiology project led by the European Space Agency, that deployed an external module to the International Space Station to study the photo-processing of organic molecules and the survival of some micro-organisms, as well as the effect of solar UV on unshielded organic molecules and micro-organisms while exposed to outer space.

Payload

The payload originally consisted of two independent modules, EXPOSE and Sky Polarization Observatory (SPOrt).

EXPOSE was a facility holding multiple exobiology experiments that study the photo-processing of organic molecules and the survival of micro-organisms in space, as well as the effect of solar UV on unshielded organic molecules and micro-organisms. The EXPOSE experiment had 12 sample compartments; each held a sample carrier. EXPOSE was placed in 2008 on an external platform on the Columbus – External Payload Facility where it remained for 1.5 years.
The second instrument, Sky Polarization Observatory, was an Italian astrophysical instrument to measure celestial polarisation range of 20–90 GHz. SPOrt goals included the first polarisation map of the Milky Way galaxy at the unexplored microwave frequencies of 22, 32 & 60 GHz and all-sky measurements in the cosmological window (90 GHz) with unprecedented sensitivity. However, due to the project's reliance on the Space Shuttle, and the setback of the Columbia disaster, the observatory was canceled in 2005.

↑ "EXPORT". European Space Agency. Retrieved 2014-01-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
↑ Rabbow, Elke; Horneck, Gerda; Rettberg, Petra; Schott, Jobst-Ulrich; Panitz, Corinna; L’Afflitto, Andrea; von Heise-Rotenburg, Ralf; Willnecker, Reiner; Baglioni, Pietro; Hatton, Jason; Dettmann, Jan; Demets, René; Reitz, Günther (9 July 2009). "EXPOSE, an Astrobiological Exposure Facility on the International Space Station - from Proposal to Flight" (PDF). Orig Life Evol Biosph. 39 (6): 581–98. Bibcode:2009OLEB...39..581R. doi:10.1007/s11084-009-9173-6. PMID 19629743. S2CID 19749414. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 January 2014. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
↑ Olsson-Francis, Karen; Cockell, Charles S. (23 October 2009). "Experimental methods for studying microbial survival in extraterrestrial environments" (PDF). Journal of Microbiological Methods. 80 (1): 1–13. doi:10.1016/j.mimet.2009.10.004. PMID 19854226. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 September 2013. Retrieved 2013-07-31.
1 2 Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES). "EXPOSE - home page". Archived from the original on 15 January 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
↑ S. Cortiglioni; B. Negri (2004), "The Sky Polarization Observatory (SPOrt)", New Astronomy, 9 (4): 297–327, arXiv:astro-ph/0401193, Bibcode:2004NewA....9..297C, doi:10.1016/j.newast.2003.11.004, S2CID 119349964
↑ "SPOrt Programme" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-07-01. Retrieved 2014-01-10.