Development and demonstration of a Modular Astrobiological Experiments (MAEx) payload for autonomous biological monitoring in Low Earth Orbit (LEO)

Yamini Jangir; Samrat Ghosh; Vinay Nayaka; Mubashir Ali; Dharshan Hegde; Kunal Mooley; Arunima Saha; Hariharan VC; Sujata Malik; Amey Bagare; Saurav Mishra; Mukuljeet Singh Mehrolia; Saravanan Matheswaran; Ashwani Kumar Thakur

arXiv · 2605.29308

Development and demonstration of a Modular Astrobiological Experiments (MAEx) payload for autonomous biological monitoring in Low Earth Orbit (LEO)

Yamini Jangir·Samrat Ghosh·Vinay Nayaka·Mubashir Ali·Dharshan Hegde·Kunal Mooley·Arunima Saha·Hariharan VC·Sujata Malik·Amey Bagare·Saurav Mishra·Mukuljeet Singh Mehrolia·Saravanan Matheswaran·Ashwani Kumar Thakur

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Abstract

The spaceflight environment presents unique physicochemical conditions, including microgravity, ionizing radiation, altered fluid transport, and confined engineered habitats, which influence biological systems and biomolecular assembly processes. These conditions also provide opportunities for orbital biomanufacturing and autonomous biofabrication that are difficult to reproduce under terrestrial gravity, motivating the development of compact autonomous experimental platforms for spaceflight research. Here, we present the Modular Astrobiology Experiment (MAEx) platform, a compact 3U spaceflight-compatible payload designed for autonomous multimodal biological characterization under space-relevant conditions. MAEx was engineered to operate within the constraints of orbital deployment, including limited volume, low power consumption, thermal regulation, and autonomous data acquisition. To demonstrate platform versatility, representative biological systems, including the electroactive bacterium Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, the radiation-resistant fungus Ustilago maydis FB1, and the human eye lens protein {\gamma}D-crystallin, spanning cellular and molecular scales were incorporated. MAEx platform integrates imaging, absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, and electrochemical sensing within a modular architecture, enabling simultaneous monitoring of microbial growth, extracellular electron transfer (EET), and protein aggregation dynamics.

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Yamini Jangir, Samrat Ghosh, Vinay Nayaka, Mubashir Ali, Dharshan Hegde, Kunal Mooley, Arunima Saha, Hariharan VC, Sujata Malik, Amey Bagare, Saurav Mishra, Mukuljeet Singh Mehrolia, Saravanan Matheswaran, Ashwani Kumar Thakur. 2026-05-28. Development and demonstration of a Modular Astrobiological Experiments (MAEx) payload for autonomous biological monitoring in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.29308

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