Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment
The Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment (LIFE or Phobos LIFE) was an interplanetary mission developed by the Planetary Society. It consisted of sending selected microorganisms on a three-year interplanetary round-trip in a small capsule aboard the Russian Fobos-Grunt spacecraft in 2011, which was a failed sample-return mission to the Martian moon Phobos. The Fobos-Grunt mission failed to leave Earth orbit and was destroyed.
'LIFE' Bio-Module | |
| Mission type | Astrobiological experiment on board the Fobos-Grunt spacecraft. |
|---|---|
| Operator | The Planetary Society |
| Website | www.planetary.org |
| Mission duration | 3 years (planned) |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Manufacturer | NPO Lavochkin |
| Launch mass | <100 g (3.5 oz) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | November 8, 2011, |
| Rocket | Zenit-2SB |
| Launch site | Baikonur 45/1 |
| Contractor | Roscosmos |
| Deployed from | Fobos-Grunt |
| End of mission | |
| Deactivated | Fobos-Grunt failed before TMI |
| Decay date | 15 January 2012 |
The goal was to test whether selected organisms can survive an undetermined number of years in deep space by flying them through interplanetary space. The experiment would have tested one aspect of panspermia, the hypothesis that life could survive space travel, if protected inside rocks blasted by impact off one planet to land on another.