For millennia we have explored the biodiversity of life on earth, from the bottom of the oceans to the tropical rainforests. But what happens when we leave the surface of the earth? Darwin noted algae in dust, Pasteur started the quest, and The Clotho Project will turn it into a research program sampling higher than ever before, and using cutting edge aerospace technology and biological techniques to answer one of the fundamental questions in biology today:
The Clotho Project is a collaboration between the Mavericks Foundation, civilian space explorers, and several of the worlds leading scientific, academic and research institutions.
The main mission is to carry out the first general survey of life in the upper atmosphere, including the upper portions of the stratosphere and mesosphere, as well as exploring areas of particular interest such as the biology of clouds and the airborne extent of algal blooms. These areas of the upper atmosphere are not accessible by aircraft nor weather balloons. In support of this science mission the program will also develop a platform capable of repeatedly carrying biological sampling device(s) up on sounding rockets, rocket powered drones, and/or balloon to retrieve organisms and other biological traces from the upper atmosphere. In addition, the program will develop a high altitude high velocity biological air sampling system.
