Labels: text | screenshot | machine OCR: THE SEARCH FOR LIFE Simulation METEORITES THE SETI PROGRAM A number of laboratories have attempted to simulate living conditions on Mars and in space. The DLR in Cologne, Germany, for example, has built a space simulation chamber, a cylinder 2.5 meters in diameter and 5 meters long, which can be placed under vacuum and cooled with liquid nitrogen to - 190℃. An experimental, man-made "Martian" soil-a mixture of clays such as montmorillonite and amorphic iron oxides-is placed in the chamber then subjected to ultraviolet radiation and cosmic rays. Certain, common higher plants, such as conifers, resist the hostile conditions of these Martian environment simulators rather well. Even ivy and holly can survive 21 days in the simulator. Lichens withstand both high and low temperatures, and dehydration, remarkably. Not surprisingly, however, none of these plants is fully adapted to the Martian environment. Blue algae, which can survive on mere traces of oxygen and water, succumb to ultraviolet rays. Lichens, on the other hand, can survive ultraviolet radiation but, like green algae and mosses, must have oxygen. MARS BETAT
(.png)
