NASA Research Life in Space

A nanosatelit no bigger than a pack of white bread and has a similar name with your favorite pastry children launched into space. By NASA, a mini satellite is tasked to study how the source of life took place in the universe.

O / Oreos, which launched the satellite name, an abbreviation of the Organism / Organic Exposure to Orbital Stresses. The satellite weighs at 5.4 pounds is the first nanosatellite which has two experimental tasks.

Experiments "Space Environment survivability of Live Organisms" will study the growth, health, and adaptability of microorganisms that live in a foreign environment and dry land. After O / Oreos reaches orbit, the experiment will give feedback and develop a group of microbes, and gauge their response to radiation and zero-gravity conditions.

In experiments, researchers will monitor whether those microbes continue to eat the right way. The nutrients that are provided have been given a color, so that, if they are healthy, they will change color.

A second experiment, titled "Space Environment viability of Organics" will monitor what happens to the four classes of organic molecules after they are exposed to outer space conditions. This experiment was designed to be able to survive for 6 months, and O / Oreos will be able to send data research for about a year.

With the launch of the above, NASA hopes to prove that the satellite will conduct experiments in space astrobiology can be done without the need to hold a research mission on the space station.

"We are trying to show that nanosatelit such as O / Oreos to meet the needs of researchers who have big ideas and important target," said Bruce Yost, O / Oreos Mission Manager Ames Research Center, NASA, as quoted by PopSci, 22 November 2010.

For orbits, O / Oreos boarded Air Force Minotaur IV rocket from Kodiak, Alaska. He began to transmit radio signals after reaching orbit about 640 kilometers from the Earth's surface. Once the mission is complete, O / Oreos also will become the first satellite that uses a mechanism without propellant to return to Earth.