Houston, we have a podcast.

Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center, episode 228,

Deep Space Biology.

I'm Gary Jordan, and I'll be your host today.

On this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, and astronauts all to let you know what's going on in the world of human spaceflight.

We're continuing episodes about the Artemis 1 mission.

This will send Orion on an uncrewed mission around the moon and will launch on top of the space launch system or the SLS the first launch of this rocket.

We've talked a lot so far about the main objectives of this mission both for Orion and for SLS,

but there are a number of secondary missions.

For the SLS, in addition to delivering the Orion into the lunar vicinity, the

Monster Rocket will also deploy a number of nanosatellites with their own missions and objectives.

One of those shoebox-sized satellites will carry life or biological samples to be precise,

specifically yeast. This is to study the effects of deep to be

precise, specifically yeast. This is to study the effects of deep space radiation on biology

and this investigation will be NASA's first set of biology experiments to take place

in deep space since the Apollo era.

To discuss this investigation called Biosentinel, we're bringing in the project scientist

Sergio Santo Maria from Ames Research Center in California.

Originally from Lima, Peru, Sergio has a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology.

He studied radiation and the effects in astronauts at the Johnson Space Center, and he also studied how cells repair

radiation damage at the American Cancer Society in New York City. He's been with

the Biosetinal team since 2014, first as a scientist and then taking on the role of science lead and project

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