WHAT IS S.O.S.O ?
The reasons and thought behind this superhero
CHALLENGE: BUILD A SPACE BIOLOGY SUPERHERO
The first part of our process was to identify the risks and negative effects which space can induce in humans and other living beings. For example, radiation, which is one of the main problems, it can even produce tumours, eye cataracts and sterility. This organism must be capable of resisting other problems too, like microgravity and pressure changes, dehydration, extremely low temperatures, food shortages, and the weakening of its immune system and muscles. We also have to take into account the psychological aspects, like isolation and loneliness, if we are talking about an organism with consciousness.
THE WAYS TO SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS:
Even though space has a lot of inconveniences for an organism to be able to survive, we think we were able to find some ways to counter these problems, our prototype is genetically modified to incorporate different natural aspects found in live beings in our planet to make it as capable as possible.
RADIATION: To solve the problems generated by radiation, we decided to include a protein called photolyase, that repairs the damages in the ADN produced by UV radiation, paired with a thick skin to help to isolate it.
EXTREME COLD: To fight this we chose to include penguin feathers and a large fat reserve to isolate our superhero as best as possible, accompanied with a glycoprotein called AFP, which decrystallizes frozen particles in its blood.
DEHYDRATION: to counter this problem, we implemented a mechanism called cryptobiosis, it is a latency state used by some microorganisms, it reduces its energy consumption, metabolism, and water percentage to its minimum.
FOOD: this live being has chloroplasts, obtained from plants, like other organisms do. Photosynthesis is possible in space due to some carbon molecules being loose in space.
THE LOOKS OF OUR SUPERHERO:
Credits: Dall-e