TANPOPO: astrobiology exposure and micrometeoroid capture experiments; Proposed experiments at the exposure facility of ISS-JEM

Yokobori, Shinichi*; Hashimoto, Hirofumi*; Hayashi, Nobuhiro*; Imai, Eiichi*; Kawai, Hideyuki*; Kobayashi, Kensei*; Mita, Hajime*; Nakagawa, Kazumichi*; Narumi, Issei; Okudaira, Kyoko*; Tabata, Makoto*; Tachikawa, Sumitaka*; Takahashi, Yuichi*; Tomita, Kaori*; Yabuta, Hikaru*; Yamashita, Masamichi*; Yano, Hajime*; Yamagishi, Akihiko*

TANPOPO, Japanese name of dandelion, is a plant species, whose seeds with floss are spread by wind. We propose this mission to examine possible interplanetary migration of microbes, and organic compounds at the Exposure Faculty of Japan Experimental Module (JEM) of the International Space Station (ISS). The Tanpopo mission consists of six subthemes - capture of microbes in space, exposure of microbes in space, capture of organic compounds in space, exposure of organic compounds in space, measurement of space debris at the ISS orbit, and evaluation of ultra low-density aerogel special for the TANPOPO mission. Our proposal was accepted as a candidate experiment on Exposed Facility of ISS-JEM. In this paper, we overview the TANPOPO mission and discuss the current status of experiments related to the microbe existence/survival set for this mission.