No. 113/2021

29 HUMBOLDT KOSMOS 113/2021 A t first glance, Cyprien Verseux could be experi- menting in the art of cookery. Atmos, short for Atmosphere Tester for Mars-bound Organic Systems, is the name of the metal cube on the lab bench. It is about a cubic metre in size and has nine glass vessels sticking out the top with tubes leading from their lids to gas bottles. If you look into the vessels that hold about a litre, you see a transparent, greenish liquid. Cyprien Verseux is not a cook, but an astrobiologist. He is not working on futuristic dishes, but on experiments in space travel. At the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) at the University of Bremen, the French scientist is preparing the manned missions to Mars that space agencies like NASA want to carry out in 15 to 20 years’ time. This is not another space race on the recent pattern of multi-billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson or Elon Musk. Rather, the major space agencies’ Mars missions are about basic research: they are designed to determine once and for all whether there really is life on Mars – even if it is only microbes deep in the ground – as well as to learn more about the evolutionary history of the solar system and life on Earth. This is what Humboldt Research Fellow Verseux is also working on in Bremen. If his project is successful, it would make it much easier to provide the astronauts with sup- plies during their mission, including, but by no means lim- ited to, food. WHERE TO GET THE AIR TO BREATHE? Apart from nutrients, we are also talking medicinal drugs, fuel and, most important of all, air to breathe. Atmos, the metal box in Verseux’ lab, is an atmosphere-controlled vacuum photobioreactor. Swimming around in the liq- uid are tiny green bacteria which could possibly provide the ingredients. Verseux is exploring how these micro- organisms could breed best on Mars. “If they deliver on what they promise, just one drop will be enough to take to Mars,” he says. “There they can be cultivated so quickly that you could fill a whole swimming pool with them in no time. And then the astronauts would be completely self-sufficient.” Voyages of discovery, outer space and biol- ogy already fascinated the 31-year-old when he was still a boy. He often went camping with his parents in the wil- derness. On clear nights, his father explained the stars to his son. “I asked myself whether there was life on the other planets, too, and decided to try and find out.” › Photos: Christiane Heinicke, Pressedienst Bremen/ Joerg Sarbach SAMPLES FOR THE MISSION NASA’s Mars simulation project HI-SEAS in the volcanic landscape of Mauna Kea on Hawaii WOULD I JOIN THE MISSION? LIKE A SHOT!” „