Swabbing Curiosity: U-Idaho’s “Invasive Species” Bacterial Research is Out of this World
By Donna Emert
University of Idaho faculty and graduate student researchers, working with Idaho alumni in the field, are leading the effort to keep Earth’s bacteria from invading outer space. Their study focuses on the bacteria present pre-flight on the Mars Rover, Curiosity, and also aims to reveal which Earthly bacteria can survive on Mars.
Faculty and graduate student researchers in the environmental sciences program, and U-Idaho alumni from the department of microbiology, molecular biology and biochemistry — formerly in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences — have been working on the project for more than two years. So the launch and landing of Curiosity earlier this summer was not only exhilarating for them as Americans, but was also a very personal triumph for them as scientists.
Alumni connections beyond the ionosphere
In the fall of 2009, U- Idaho alumnus J. Nick Benardini, a planetary protection engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), contacted U-Idaho graduate student, Stephanie Smith, a doctoral student in environmental sciences, offering her the opportunity to study bacteria collected on Curiosity prior to launch.
In response, Smith and her adviser, former U-Idaho geology assistant professor Susan E. Childers, wrote an Idaho Space Grant Consortium (ISGC) Research Initiation Grant proposal, which was funded in the spring of 2010. In addition, Smith was awarded a two-year, $30,000 fellowship by ISGC.
That research, now being conducted at the University of Idaho, is directly related to the planetary protection efforts at NASA and JPL.
.“The biological sampling of spacecraft is required to ensure international planetary protection requirements are met regarding the number of microbes transported into space,” said Benardini. “NASA can only launch spacecraft to Mars if there are less than 300,000 microbes on the surface of the entire spacecraft.”
JPL archives bacterial isolates collected during the assembly, testing and launch operations of selected pre-flight spacecraft. Working in collaboration with JPL, Smith and Childers embarked on a study to identify the microbes found on Curiosity. Their studies are yielding details about the microbes, and will reveal whether microbes from Earth have the potential to survive and thrive on Mars.
Their research will help shape cleaning and sterilization technologies for spacecraft, aimed at preventing contamination of Mars, contamination that could negatively impact future life-detection missions.
And Back on Earth . . .
Several U-Idaho students who are now alumni contributed substantially to the project, including Emmaleen Wear, David Anderl, and Michael Schrader. The results of their work are on track to be published this winter.
The research has proven valuable to NASA: Smith has been awarded JPL subcontracts in the amount of $5000 to characterize microbial isolates that could grow under high magnesium sulfate concentrations and to provide additional data. Schrader was awarded an ISGC ten-week summer internship at JPL in 2011, to continue his study.
The initial Idaho research on Curiosity ultimately led to the funding of a $750,000 NASA Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) grant to study microbes collected on other Mars-bound spacecraft, dating back to the 1970s.
Research funded by the EPSCoR grant reaches across disciplines and institutions, including studies now being conducted by U-Idaho’s Smith; Childers, now with Colby College in Maine; Linda DeVeaux, of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; Andrzej Paszczynski, U-Idaho School of Food Science; and Alissa Tenuto, a U-Idaho graduate student in Environmental Sciences. Tenuto’s work will provide vital information on the bacteria collected from the Viking missions, bacteria that may have posed a threat to planetary protection goals.
Matt Ford, a doctoral student in biology at Idaho State University, also is collaborating with Smith, under the direction of professor DeVeaux and in collaboration with Benardini at JPL, to identify bacteria that are resistant to high doses of radiation.
“These collaborations give graduate and undergraduate student researchers the opportunity to work on current and historical NASA missions with world-class scientists from within and outside of the University of Idaho,” said Smith. “That interaction is an education unto itself, and is very powerful on a resume. Another objective that we hope to accomplish is to perform outreach at various k-12 schools within the region, so that we can teach the younger generation about NASA based research, and share the excitement of being a part of these fascinating missions.”
The collaborative research directly impacts participating U-Idaho students and faculty, and reverberates beyond them: The goal of NASA EPSCoR is to provide funding that will enable States to develop academic research enterprises directed toward long-term, self-sustaining, nationally competitive capabilities in aerospace research. Strengthening that capability contributes to Idaho’s economic viability, and expands the Nation's base for aerospace research and development.