Study of the biocompatibility of the Martian environment for Terrestrial organisms

Terraforming Mars? Why? Well, because life as we know it cannot survive to Mars’ extreme conditions. But that may not be entirely true. Indeed, some organisms on Earth have the ability to survive conditions that are lethal to most other organisms, they are called extremophiles. But could they withstand Mars’ extreme conditions ? This is the question this study aims to answer.

Extremophiles will be exposed to the environmental conditions found at the MDRS site simulating the pressure, temperature and radiation found on Mars. At different time points, their viability will be assessed and compared to that of their unexposed analogues.

Understanding how these organisms manage to survive such extreme conditions could lead to interesting research, such as studying how we could use their ability to facilitate habitation on Mars for humans as well as for plants or animals.