Below is a letter I sent to the Space Studies Board. In regards to the question of where these spores were found and the implications thereof, I found in a letter I wrote to one of the discoverers of the spore a mention of the fact that in Barry Digregorio's book _Mars: the Living Planet_ he discusses that samples taken from Antarctica by Wolf Vishniac also showed spores with a honeycombed shape.
I don't know if these spores would be dry heat resistant or radiation resistant, but the fact they occurred in Antarctica suggest they are cold and desiccation resistant. (If they turn out to be related to ATCC 27380 that would also end spooky speculation on the origin of the spores.)

From: "Robert Clark" <clark@maths.widener.edu>
To: <ssb@nas.edu>
Subject: Suggestion for a space ready spore and the origins of radiation resistance.
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 12:15:28 -0500
Organization: Widener University

Hello Space Studies Board. I was interested to read in the report
"Preventing the Forward Contamination of Europa" in Chapter 3 on life able to survive extreme radiation environments. Copied below is a post to sci.astro about a possible radiation resistant spore discovered during
spacecraft contamination studies. It is interesting to note that this spore
was found in soil around one of the NASA centers, which suggests it is
rather common.
[As I write this another possibility occurs to me. In the article by Youvan
et.al. in Life Sciences and Space Research the spore is described as coming
from "Kennedy Space Center soil samples." However, in the article they cite
by Bond et.al., it only says: "During a study of naturally occurring spores,
an unusually dry-heat resistant population was encountered when a suspension
of soil from Cape Kennedy was tested." This could mean it came from near the
space center or just somewhere on the cape. It would be interesting to find
out if these spores are common near the Kennedy Space Center but not other
locations on the cape or at other locations. If they turn out to be common
only at Kennedy, then that raises a question: could this spore have been
delivered to Earth by space vehicles returned to Earth serviced at Kennedy?
The article by Bond et.al. on the spores appeared in 1973. Were there
returned space vehicles serviced at Kennedy by 1973?]
In addition to this microbes spores having strong inner and outer coats,
another reason why I think it likely it would be radiation resistant is that
its extreme resistance to dry heating
suggests it should also have high resistance to desiccation. And the genetic
repair mechanisms for desiccation have been hypothesized to also work for
radiation damage. It is interesting to note then that this spore can survive
days of dry heating at 125 degree C, a temperature at which the Bacillus
subtilus spore, the spore commonly
used as a baseline for radiation resistance, would survive for only minutes.
Then one might make a correlation on that basis to their relative resistance
to radiation as well.

In regards to the radiation resistant Deinococcus Radiodurans, It has been
suggested that its radiation resistance developed as a protection against
desiccation:

Meet the Superbug
Science News, December 12, 1998
"Our conclusion was that D. radiodurans was an organism built upon the
ability to survive prolonged periods of desiccation,' says Battista.
"The researchers are still struggling to prove that case. They
unsuccessfully searched a Chilean desert for the bacterium, for example.
Meanwhile, relatives of the microbe have recently been found in areas
unlikely to suffer a lack of water, such as hot springs. Since heat induces
double-strand DNA breaks, the springs might have also forced the bacteria to
develop their survival skills, notes Battista. "
http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc98/12_12_98/Bob1.htm

The strain of Deinococcus discussed here is resistant to desiccation. But
I've been informed by Klaus Dose that the R1 strain of Deinococcus is not
desiccation resistant. This is discussed on pages 294-296 of an article by
Dose et.al.:

Survival of Microorganisms under the Extreme Conditions of the Atacama
Desert
Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere
31 (3): 287-303, June 2001
http://ipsapp008.lwwonline.com/content/getfile/5066/20/1/abstract.htm

If the R1 strain is not desiccation resistant then that raises the
possibility that its radiation resistance is something that developed
independently of desiccation resistance.
I find it interesting as well that Deinococcus is known to contain
carotenoids, one of the type of pigments known to be protective against UV.
The presence of carotenoids within Deinococcus also raises the
possibility that its radiation resistance developed in a high radiation
environment, such as in space for example, or perhaps in the stratosphere.
Another suggested reason for the presence of carotenoids is the scavenging
of free radicals that could produce DNA damage:

Gene Repair and Radiation Resistance
http://sites.netscape.net/skennedysd/generepairradresistance

A test of this would be to see if there are microbes resistant to
desiccation but not radiation damage which do not contain carotenoids. This
would suggest the carotenoids are indeed to provide radiation protection.
However, I don't know if there are organisms with high desiccation
resistance that are not radiation resistant to begin with. Perhaps
xerophytic organisms would be a type of microbe to check.

Thank You,

Bob Clark

________________________________________________________

From: Robert Clark (rgclark@my-deja.com)
Subject: Space ready spores?
Newsgroups: sci.astro, sci.physics, sci.bio.misc, sci.astro.seti
Date: 2001-12-13 14:13:06 PST

Recent discussions on the online BBS

Inner Solar System Discussion Group (ISSDG)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ISSDG/

concerned the possibility of spores surviving long periods in space to
travel from one planetary system to another. I was reminded of a type
of spore shown to be extremely resistant to dry heating:

The Antaeus Report: Orbiting Quarantine Facility - Scientific and
Technical Information Branch, NASA, Washington D.C. 1981.
NASA SP-454.
"One way to return a sample that is free of organisms
that could contaminate the Earth's biosphere is to
sterilize the sample during its return from Mars. The
sterilization treatment employed must be severe
enough to ensure that no life forms, as we know them,
could survive. Recently, terrestrial soil-inhabiting
microbes have been discovered that show a mere
10-fold reduction in viable organisms after 139 hours
at 125° C-a heating treatment 70 times longer than is
required to kill most soil organisms (ref. 15)."
Chapter 2, p. 9.
http://www.icamsr.org/docs/antaeus_report_sp-454.pdf

Two articles on it by Bond et. al. appeared in Applied
Microbiology:

Bacillus sp. ATCC 27380: a Spore with Extreme Resistance to
Dry Heat
Bond, Favero, and Korber
Applied Microbiology, vol. 26, no. 4, Oct. 1973, p. 614-616
ABSTRACT
An unusual mesophilic Bacillus sp. was isolated from heated
soil, and a cleaned spore preparation showed extraordinary
resistance to dry heat (D_125C = 139H) and relative sensitivity to
moist heat (D_80C = 61 min). Biochemical tests and
morphology fit no described species.

Thermal Profile of a Bacillus Species (ATCC 27380) Extremely
Resistant to Dry Heat.
Bond and Favero
Applied Microbiology, vol. 29, no. 6, June 1975, p. 859-860
ABSTRACT
Spores of Bacillus sp. ATCC 27380 were exposed at intervals to
dry-heat temperatures ranging from 125 to 150 C. D-values from
139 to 2.5 hours were obtained.

An article on it by Youvan et. al. also appeared in Life Sciences
and Space Research:

Morphology of Extremely Heat Resistant Spores from Bacillus
sp. ATCC 27380 by Scanning and Transmission Electron
Microscopy
Youvan, Watanabe, Holmquist
Life Sciences and Space Research, vol. 15, 1976, p. 65-72.
ABSTRACT
Bacillus sp. ATCC 27380 is a recently discovered aerobic
mesophile, isolated from surface soil, that produces spores with
extreme resistance to dry heat: the length of time to 90% kill is
139 hr. at 125 C and 13-17 hr. at 138 C. Values for spores from
other known species range from 5 to 100 min. The molecular
basis for this extreme heat resistance is unknown. We report a
structural analysis of the internal and external mature spore
morphology obtained by both scanning and transmission
electron microscopy. Both modes of microscopy delineate a
morel-like structure characterized by irregular, but distinct,
polygonal ridges suggestive of extreme dehydration. Some
spores also possess an appendage resembling the bun of a
brioche. This bun-like body is possibly unique to this species. In
cross-section the spore exhibits a many-layered structure, each
layer with a characteristic fine structure. These morphological
characters do not suffice to explain the observed resistance to
dry heat at extreme temperatures. They do form a basis for the
chemical characterization which will be necessary to understand
this heat resistance at the molecular level. The concept of a
"solid state spore" is put forward as a generalization that may be
useful towards understanding this resistance.

The Bacillus is available from the American Type Culture
Collection catalog:

ATCC Number: 27380
Organism: Bacillus xerothermodurans Bond and Favero
http://phage.atcc.org/cgi-bin/searchengine/longview.cgi?view=ba
,4609682,27380&text=27380

This page on the ATCC site also gives this reference on the
spore:

Bacillus xerothermodurans sp. nov., a Species Forming
Endospores Extremely Resistant to Dry Heat.
Bond and Favero
International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology, vol. 27, no. 2,
April 1977, p. 157-169
ABSTRACT
An unusual mesophilic bacillus was isolated from soil, and a
cleaned spore preparation of this organism showed extreme
resistance to dry heat (D_125C = 139 hours, D_130C = 54 h,
D_135C = 24 h, D_145C = 8 h, D_150C = 2.5 h; where D = time
at temperature effecting 90% reduction in viable count); and
relative sensitivity to moist heat (D_80C = 61 min). The
biochemical tests, exterior and interior spore morphology, and
growth characteristics of this organism do not fit those of any of
the presently described species of bacteria. Consequently, we
regard this organism as belonging to a new species, for which
we propose the name Bacillus xerothermodurans. The type
strain of this species has been deposited in the American Type
Culture Collection as ATCC 27380.

I put electron micrograph images of the spore in the BBS's Files
section under the name "ATCC 27380.bmp". You need to be member of the
group to view the files.

Because it has an exceptional strong spore coat I thought it
might also be highly resistant to radiation. In fact the spores' coat
has a very interesting morphology. It has a type of honeycomb
shape. It occurs to me however that it also looks like a "buckyball",
i.e., buckminsterfullerene:

Buckyballs Can Come from Outer Space
"A new study shows that carbon molecules known as fullerenes
can originate outside the solar system and ride in on meteors."
http://www.sciencenews.org/20000325/fob1.asp

This article notes that buckyballs can be made in the lab and by
lightning strikes on rocks. However, perhaps these buckyballs
observed in carbonaceous meteorites could also be the spore
coats of decayed microbes.

Because of their very strong coats it may be that these spores could
survive the impact to the collectors of the Genesis and Stardust
missions. It is assumed that any complex organics would be dissociated
into simple compounds on impact to the collectors.

Bob Clark

****************************************************************************
From: Robert Clark (rgclark@my-deja.com)
Subject: Will the Genesis mission confirm the theory of panspermia?
Newsgroups: sci.astro, sci.space.policy, sci.physics, sci.astro.seti
Date: 2001-12-12 12:45:00 PST

The Genesis mission's purpose is to collect samples of the solar
wind:

Genesis Mission
http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov/

Ironically this "Genesis" mission may provide evidence for the
origins of life on Earth.

Svante Arrhenius first proposed the idea that bacteria could have
been spread to Earth and between solar systems by radiation pressure:

INTRODUCTION: MORE THAN PANSPERMIA
http://www.panspermia.org/intro.htm

This idea was criticized on the grounds that the exposure to
radiation would kill such unprotected organisms. Hoyle and
Wickramasinghe champion the idea that the microbes could be protected
within comets that get ejected from one solar system and arrive at
another on the time scale of 100's of millions of years.

However, if the microbes are propelled by the heavier charged
particles of the solar wind then because of the microbes small mass
they may quickly attain the speeds of the particles of the solar
wind, on the order of millions of kilometers per hour. Then the time
scale for them to reach the nearest solar systems, or to come here
from them, would be on the order of only hundreds to thousands of
years.
If microbes are shed with material of a comet's tail, they would be
spread in all directions by the solar wind, since comets appear in
all directions both in and out of the ecliptic. This means the
microbes would be much more likely to encounter another solar system.
Note also that due to the high speeds imparted to the microbes by
the solar wind the amount of time they would spend within the
originating solar system would be comparatively short, perhaps less
than a year, thus reducing the damage they would suffer from
radiation.
How would the unprotected microbes survive this radiation? If the
time they are in space is only on the order of hundreds of years then
some bacterial spores may have this capability:

CAN SPORES SURVIVE IN INTERSTELLAR SPACE?
http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf042/sf042p11.htm

Also research shows that some bacteria species have the ability to
repair damage to their DNA from even extreme doses of radiation. The
most famous example of this is Deinococcus Radiodurans:

Meet Conan the Bacterium
Humble microbe could become
"The Accidental (Space) Tourist"
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast14dec99_1.htm

Recent research shows related high-radiation resistant microbes
survive at below zero temperatures at the south pole:

Life in extreme conditions
"To their surprise, biochemical tests and electron microscope images
show that the organisms can grow and divide even at -17 degrees C-the
coldest condition the team tested. "Probably they could live at even
lower temperatures," says Carpenter."
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=3017

The question: will the Genesis mission collect such microbes while
it is collecting samples of the solar wind?

Bob Clark
**************************************************

________________________________________________________