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Projects: LIFE Experiment: Shuttle & Phobos

LIFE Bio Module: The Patented Design

  1. The outer housing is Titanium which has a high modulus of strength to weight. The shell is machined with “pockets” which reduce weight but do not diminish its strength. This “waffle” type of design is common in aerospace structural design.

  2. The inner carrier is ceramic or glass so that it is easily sterilized and has material machined away to limit mass. The thirty pockets along with the central cavity remove material and thus mass.

  3. There are 30 each 3mm diameter polymer (Delrin) containers which hold the microbe samples in the cavities. There is a polymer central container for the colony sample as well.

  4. There are multiple redundant seals. The end caps are heat sealed onto the polymer capsules in each of the thirty-one cavities (30+1).  The ceramic carrier has a top half which has “pegs” or diameters matching the cavities in the lower half and these secure the capsules and prevent the end caps from separating during flight. Next there is a silicone O-Ring sandwiched between the two halves of the carrier external to the sample cavities and this polymer seal acts as a secondary containment (seal). This completes sealing the carrier assembly, but wait, there's more.

  5. The ceramic carrier is contained by three Titanium clips which keep the two halves of the carrier under sealing pressure. These clips are also retained by Kapton tape circumferentially.

  6. Above and below the carrier are layers of polymer foam (Poron) to mitigate launch and landing shock.

  7. The sealed and wrapped assembly is placed into the bottom half of the Titanium housing and a tertiary seal of wire (Indium) is placed in a groove between the top and bottom housings and the top turned engaging three integral locking lugs which are then safety wired in place to prevent the top from backing out. The metallic Indium seal is permanently crushed to seal the housing. Thus both internal seals could fail and the Bio-module would not leak, and conversely the Indium wire seal could fail and the O-Ring and polymer capsules would provide containment.

  8. Radiation measurement is accomplished by 8 small dosimeter squares covering two different energy ranges.  The highest temperature different parts of the biomodule reach will be measure using several stickers that have circles on them that change colors at different temperatures.
The LIFE biomodule, exploded view
Click to enlarge >
The LIFE biomodule, exploded view
Credit: The Planetary Society