DEVELOPMENT OF A BIOCHIP DEDICATED TO PLANETARY EXPLORATION. FIRST STEP: RESISTANCE STUDIES TO SPACE CONDITIONS

For upcoming exploration missions, space agencies advocate the development of a new promising technique to search for traces of extent or extinct life: the biochip use. As space is a hazardous environment, a main concern relies on the resistance of this device to a panel of harsh constraints. Within the framework of the BiOMAS (Biochip for Organic Matter Analysis in Space) project, our team is currently developing a biochip especially designed for planetary exploration. We present here the methodology adopted and the beginning experiments to select the best constituents, to determine resistance levels and to define well- adapted protection for the biochip.