When the Artemis missions launch, NASA's Orion spacecraft (and crew as of the Artemis II mission) will be exposed to the deep space radiation environment beyond the protection of Earth's magnetosphere. Hence, it is essential to characterize the effects of space radiation, microgravity, and the combination thereof on cells and organisms, i.e., to quantify any correlations between the deep space radiation environment, genetic variation, and induced genetic changes in cells. To address this, the Artemis I mission will include the Peristaltic Laboratory for Automated Science with Multigenerations (PLASM) hardware containing the Deep Space Radiation Genomics (DSRG) experiment. The scientific aims of DSRG are (i) to identify the metabolic and genomic pathways in yeast affected by microgravity, space radiation, and their combination, and (ii) to differentiate between gravity and radiation exposure on single-gene deletion/overexpressing strains' ability to thrive in the spaceflight environment. Yeast is used as a model system because 70% of its essential genes have a human homolog, and over half of these homologs can functionally replace their human counterpart. As part of the experiment preparation towards spaceflight, an Experiment Verification Test (EVT) was performed at the Kennedy Space Center to verify that the experiment design, hardware, and approach to automated operations will enable achieving the scientific aims. For the EVT, fluidic systems were assembled, sterilized, loaded, and acceptance-tested, and subsequently integrated with the engineering parts to produce a flight-like PLASM unit. Each fluidic system consisted of (i) a Media Bag, (ii) four Culture Bags loaded with Saccharomyces cerevisiae (two with deletion series and the remaining two with overexpression series), and (iii) tubing and check valves. The EVT PLASM unit was put under a temperature profile replicating the anticipated different phases of flight, including handover to launch, spaceflight, and splashdown to handover back to the science team, for a 58-day period. At EVT completion, the rate of activation, cellular growth, RNA integrity, and sample contamination were interrogated. All of the experiment's success criteria were satisfied, encouraging our efforts to perform this investigation on Artemis I. This manuscript thus describes the process of spaceflight experiment design maturation with a focus on the EVT, its results, DSRG's preparation for its planned launch on Artemis I in 2022, and how the PLASM hardware can enable other scientific goals on future Artemis missions and/or the Lunar Orbital Platform – Gateway.

当阿尔忒弥斯任务发射时，美国宇航局的猎户座飞船（以及阿尔忒弥斯二号任务的机组人员）将暴露在地球磁层保护范围之外的深空辐射环境中。因此，有必要描述空间辐射、微重力及其组合对细胞和生物体的影响，即量化深空辐射环境、遗传变异和细胞中诱导的遗传变化之间的任何相关性。为了解决这个问题，Artemis I 任务将包括包含深空辐射基因组学 (DSRG) 实验的多代自动化科学蠕动实验室 (PLASM) 硬件。DSRG 的科学目标是 ( i) 以确定酵母中受微重力、空间辐射及其组合影响的代谢和基因组途径，以及 ( ii) 以区分重力和辐射暴露对单基因缺失/过表达菌株在太空飞行环境中茁壮成长的能力。酵母被用作模型系统是因为其 70% 的必需基因具有人类同源基因，并且这些同源基因中的一半以上可以在功能上替代它们的人类对应物。作为太空飞行实验准备的一部分，肯尼迪航天中心进行了实验验证测试 (EVT)，以验证实验设计、硬件和自动化操作方法是否能够实现科学目标。对于 EVT，射流系统经过组装、消毒、装载和验收测试，随后与工程部件集成以生产类似飞行的 PLASM 装置。每个流体系统由 ( i）一个培养基袋，（ii）四个装有酿酒酵母的培养袋（两个带有缺失系列，其余两个带有过度表达系列），以及（iii) 管道和止回阀。将 EVT PLASM 装置置于模拟预期不同飞行阶段的温度曲线下，包括从移交到发射、太空飞行和溅落到移交给科学团队，为期 58 天。在 EVT 完成时，会询问激活率、细胞生长、RNA 完整性和样品污染。所有实验的成功标准都得到满足，鼓励我们努力对 Artemis I 进行这项调查。因此，这份手稿描述了航天实验设计成熟的过程，重点是 EVT、其结果、DSRG 为计划在 Artemis I 上发射的准备2022 年，以及 PLASM 硬件如何实现未来阿尔忒弥斯任务和/或月球轨道平台 - 网关的其他科学目标。