Product Code Database
BIOPAN is a multi-user research program by the European Space Agency (ESA) designed to investigate the effect of the space environment on biological material. The experiments in BIOPAN are exposed to Insolation and Cosmic ray, the space vacuum and weightlessness, or a selection thereof. Optionally, the experiment temperature can be stabilized. BIOPAN hosts astrobiology, radiobiology and materials science experiments.
The BIOPAN facility is installed on the external surface of Russian Foton descent capsules protruding from the thermal blanket that envelops the satellite.
The BIOPAN facilities are equipped with thermometers, ultraviolet sensors, a radiometer, a pressure sensor and an active radiation dosimeter. Data acquired by the sensors is stored by BIOPAN throughout each mission and can be accessed after flight. The possibility of overheating during atmospheric re-entry was acknowledged early during the development, therefore, a quite massive heat shield was designed for it. While the total weight of BIOPAN is close to 27 kg, including the experiments, the heat shield is responsible for 12 kg of that figure.
The BIOPAN electronics consists of the following units: signal acquisition board, microcontroller board with its flight software, memory board and EGSE.
| Test flight with non-ESA sponsored experiments |
| 6 experiments: Base, Shrimp. Mapping, Survival, Vitamin, Dust |
| 6 experiments: Base, Shrimp. Mapping, Survival, Vitamin, Dust |
| 4 experiments: Survival, Yeast, Dosimap, Vitamin |
| 9 experiments - lost during launch failure |
| 9 experiments: Marstox, Levtar, Photo-I, Rado, Lichens, Organics, Yeast II, R3D-B, Permafrost |
| 10 experiments: R3D-B2, UVolution, Highrad, Yeast III, Life, LMC, Tardis A & B, Lithopanspermia, Marstox II, The BIOPAN experiment MARSTOX II of the FOTON M-3 mission July 2008. Rado II |
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