"I am pleased that NASA received proposals that were judged by the scientific community to be of exceptional scientific merit," said Benjamin Neumann, director for the Advanced Capabilities Division in the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, Washington. Engineers and scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., will be in charge of developing and testing the spaceflight equipment that will be used to conduct these experiments in space.

In a solicitation issued jointly by the Fundamental Space Biology and Astrobiology Programs, NASA invited proposals that would shed light on the effects of space flight on life, provide an understanding of life’s foundations on Earth and beyond, or use small satellites to explore the solar system and identify biosignatures for remote sensing applications.

Porterfield's proposal, "SporeSat Mission: Investigating Biophysical Mechanisms of Plant Gravisensing using a Lab-on-a-Chip Approach," will develop state-of-the-art biomedical instrumentation to measure calcium currents in fern spores of Ceratopteris richardii. Calcium currents are important signaling mechanisms in most plant and animal cells. If the hardware development and testing is successful, spores will be studied during space flight where exposure to various levels of gravity will be used to determine the effect of gravity on how plant embryos establish the axes and develop. Scientists believe understanding how plants develop in space is important for biology and life support in future space and planetary missions. The experiment will include a modified and further developed version of Porterfield's "lab-on-a-chip" device, a miniature analytical tool.