Expose-R (R stands for its mounting on the Russian module Zvezda) was mounted by Russian cosmonauts extravehicular activity on 11 March 2009 and the exposure to outer space conditions continued for 682 days until 21 January 2011, when it was brought back to Earth by the last Discovery Shuttle flight STS-133 on 9 March 2011. EXPOSE-R was equipped with three trays housing eight experiments and 3 radiation dosimeters. Each tray was loaded with a variety of biological organisms including plant seeds and spores of bacteria, fungi and ferns that were exposed to the harsh space environment for about one and a half years. The ROSE (Response of Organisms to Space Environment) group of experiments are under the coordination of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and has been composed of scientists from different European countries, from United States and from Japan. In its 8 experiments of biological and chemical content, more than 1200 individual samples were exposed to solar ultraviolet (UV) radiations, vacuum, cosmic rays or extreme temperature variations. In their different experiments, the involved scientists are studying the question of lifes origin on Earth and the results of their experiments are contributing to different aspects of the evolution and distribution of life in the Universe.
The EXPOSE-R experiments are:
* AMINO, study of solar ultraviolet (UV) effects on amino acids and other organic compounds placed in terrestrial orbit.
* ORGANICS, study of the evolution of organic matter placed in outer space.
* ENDO (ROSE-1), study the effects of radiation on endolithic microorganisms (growing within cracks and pore spaces in rocks).
* OSMO (ROSE-2), study of the exposition of osmophilic microorganisms to space environment.
* SPORES (ROSE-3), study of spores placed inside artificial meteorites.
* PHOTO (ROSE-4), study of solar radiation effects on the genetic material of spores.
* SUBTIL (ROSE-5), study of mutagen effect of space environment on bacterial spores (Bacillus subtilis).
* PUR (ROSE-8), study of space environment effect on T7 phage, its DNA and of polycristalline uracil.
* IMBP (Institute of Biomedical Problems), this included bacterial spores, fungal spores, plant seeds, and eggs of lower crustacean and cryptobiotic larvae.