Detecting microbiology in the upper atmosphere: relative-velocity filtered sampling

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Berera, Arjun, Brener, Daniel J., Cockell, Charles S.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2023
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author Berera, Arjun
Brener, Daniel J.
Cockell, Charles S.
author_facet Berera, Arjun
Brener, Daniel J.
Cockell, Charles S.
contents The purpose of this paper is to re-open from a practical perspective the question of the extent in altitude of the Earth's biosphere. We make a number of different suggestions for how searches for biological material could be conducted in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere, colloquially referred to as the ignoreosphere due to its lack of investigation in the meteorological community compared to other regions. Relatively recent technological advances such as CubeSats in Very Low Earth Orbit or more standard approaches such as the rocket borne MAGIC meteoric smoke particle sampler, are shown as potentially viable for sampling biological material in the ignoreosphere. The issue of contamination is discussed and a potential solution to the problem is proposed by the means of a new detector design which filters for particles based on their size and relative-velocity to the detector.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2302_09280
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Detecting microbiology in the upper atmosphere: relative-velocity filtered sampling
Berera, Arjun
Brener, Daniel J.
Cockell, Charles S.
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Biological Physics
The purpose of this paper is to re-open from a practical perspective the question of the extent in altitude of the Earth's biosphere. We make a number of different suggestions for how searches for biological material could be conducted in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere, colloquially referred to as the ignoreosphere due to its lack of investigation in the meteorological community compared to other regions. Relatively recent technological advances such as CubeSats in Very Low Earth Orbit or more standard approaches such as the rocket borne MAGIC meteoric smoke particle sampler, are shown as potentially viable for sampling biological material in the ignoreosphere. The issue of contamination is discussed and a potential solution to the problem is proposed by the means of a new detector design which filters for particles based on their size and relative-velocity to the detector.
title Detecting microbiology in the upper atmosphere: relative-velocity filtered sampling
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Biological Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.09280