EXPORT
Measuring instrument on the International Space Station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
EXPORT is an exobiology project led by the European Space Agency,[1] 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.[2][3]
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.[4]
- The second instrument, Sky Polarization Observatory, was an Italian astrophysical instrument to measure celestial polarisation range of 20–90 GHz.[5] 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.[4] However, due to the project's reliance on the Space Shuttle, and the setback of the Columbia disaster, the observatory was canceled in 2005.[6]
