Dr. Magdalena Osburn collects samples from one of the Deep Mine Microbial Observatory (DeMMO) sites at SURF.
Photo by Stephen KennyPresent
DeMMO
It’s not all cleanrooms and Tyvek suits at Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF). Sometimes, it’s muck boots and headlamps. Visiting biologists with DeMMO collect subsurface samples to learn how microbes are metabolizing and surviving in those locations to understand how life might be functioning on other planets that experience the same or similar stressors, like extreme heat, temperature, pressure, radiation and lack of sunlight.
Sanford Lab, with over 370 miles of shafts, drifts and ramps, serves the project as DeMMO, or the Deep Mine Microbial Observatory. The DeMMO effort is run by Dr. Maggie Osburn at Northwestern University, who conceptualized and established the DeMMO site. The project began as a NASA astrobiology-funded effort and is now supported by NASA's exobiology program and other partners.
The observatory at Sanford Lab is a network of boreholes that intersect fluid-filled fractures on the 800, 2000, 3950 and 4850 levels. Kruger visits two to three times a year to collect samples from the various boreholes.
