Deep Data - 2009
microorganisms and deep space
The deep space probes currently orbiting Saturn, sitting on the surface of Titan or Mars or heading at almost inconceivable speeds out towards the very edge of the solar system are carrying out two simultaneous functions. Their primary function is to investigate the interplanetary environment and the conditions on and around the outer planets themselves; one subtext of this function being a search for possible conditions for life and how they might influence its evolution. They are painting a vivid image of the relatively abstract landscapes of deep space and the factors and phenomena that model it. Their secondary function is to act as messengers. These craft carry explicit messages aboard with the vague but optimistic hope that one day, thousands of years into the future an alien intelligence will discover them, decipher them and learn of ourselves. These probes are the envoys of human life and the terrestrial environment and simultaneously of a long past utopian vision of our conquering of space.
Meanwhile on Earth the unseen activity of microbes models our own landscape and in turn influences our own human relationship with that landscape. Indeed, the actions of these microbes, billions of years past, in forming a breathable atmosphere made our own existence possible. Furthermore, our own continuing existence would be impossible without our myriad and complex relationships with microbes.
As we begin to receive data from the very limit of our own solar system and the end of the influence of our Sun we can also look inwards to the equally strange and alien environment of microbiology. The developing science of astrobiology has taken the pragmatic step of using our microbial lifeforms, particularly those which are extremophiles, as a basis for the study of the possibilities of life elsewhere. It is generally understood that, despite the daily occurrence of discovering new planets, we are more likely to find lifeforms, or evidence of past lifeforms, closer to our microbes than to ourselves - at least within our own solar system. Organisms such as the nematode and the tardigrade are becoming the workhorses of this new science and travel into space aboard space shuttles and Foton craft to explore their reactions to and methods of surviving the harsh space environment.
Via a combination of the study of the data from deep space probes and the study of microbial activities we have the developing twin concepts of possibilities for life and the foundations of life. This project has as its central methodology the simultaneous exploration of these two concepts.
The project also examines the issue of systems boundaries. If we look at an ecosystem where do we look for the boundary? At the edges of the pool, the country, the continent, the planet, the solar system...? How far do we go before we find the boundary that defines the edge of the system?
Deep Data proposes that we must keep looking outwards to find that boundary, and so to find the limit of interacting factors. do accomplish this it begins to look at the outermost information we have, and that is the information fed back to us by the deep space probes such as pioneer and voyager.
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The DEEP DATA (working title) project is a developmental work in progress connecting deep space exploration with terrestrial extremophiles and the science of astrobiology. The project will use sensor data gathered from deep space probes and planetary explorers such as Pioneer 10 + 11, Voyager 1 + 2, Cassini/Huygens, New Horizons and the various Martian explorers. Data from these probes will be used to recreate specific conditions within cultures of terrestrial microorganisms currently used in astrobiological and general space research such as tardigrades, nematodes and magnetic bacteria.
Strategies will be developed to extract data from the organisms during or after manipulation and this data will be used to generate new code. This code will form the basis of an A-life entity which could be seen as a theoretically ideal life form for deep space travel and survival.
A current functioning prototype of one aspect of the project is currently being shown as Deep Data (extract). This prototype focuses on receiving and recreating magnetic field data from the Pioneer and Voyager probes within cultures of tardigrades, a microscopic species being used for current space and astrobiological research.
A specially designed culture vessel is used to house the organisms, electromagnets, a hall sensor and LEDs. This unique observation device is housed within an inverted biological microscope with connected video camera. The image from the camera is combined with graphical feedback from the hall sensor to form the visual display of the work. Sonic feedback in the form of pitch shifting natural radio emissions from Jupiter offers an aural sense of the strengths of the fluctuating magnetic fields within the observation vessel.
Information about aspects of the development process of this prototype can be found here
The LONG project
Deep Data aims to combine terrestrial organisms used in space and astrobiological research with elements of the deep space environment explored by over 30 years of probes.
Since the early 1970s we have launched a large number of robotic explorers into space, to examine the outer planets, to further understand the Sun, to map and measure the surface of Mars. These machines carry arrays of sensors with which to measure and define the characteristics of planetary, inter planetary, and now inter stellar space. Many of these probes have also carried aboard them some form of message designed for any intelligent beings that might discover them thousands of years and thousands of light years from here and now. The 1970s were a utopian period in science and science fiction - we belived that by now we would be regularly visiting the Moon, have a base on Mars and would be well on the way to sharing the galaxy with other intelligent beings.
The recent science of astrobiology is a reaction to a more pragmatic realisation from more pragmatic times. It is generally understood that, despite the daily occurrence of discovering new planets, we are more likely to find lifeforms, or evidence of past lifeforms, closer to our microbes than to ourselves - at least within our own solar system. Organisms such as the nematode and the tardigrade are becoming the workhorses of this new science and travel into space aboard space shuttles and Foton craft to explore their reactions to and methods of surviving the harsh space environment.
The Deep Data project will use various streams of sensor data from a range of robotic explorers and develop ways of recreating those aspects of the space environment within cultures of these organisms. Strategies including flourescence imaging and DNA sequencing will be employed to derive data from the experiences and reactions of the organisms to space environments. This data will then form the basis of code which will evolve a theoretically ideal A-life organism for space survival. Possibly there will also be the chance to transmit this organism back out towards the space probes and its 'natural' environment.
exhibiton history:
July 2009 - Enter4, Prague
September - October 2009 - Arenas Movedizas, Gijon
December 2009 - Kapelica Gallery, Ljubljana
January - February 2010 - Abstract Machines, Hervidero, Gijon
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contextual links
the pioneer missions
the voyager missions
the cassini mission
deep space network
tardigrades
nematodes
astrobiology