NASA has selected a Planetary Society proposal to study accommodation of the Society’s LIFE (Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment) biomodule on NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM). The Planetary Society ARM LIFE proposal was one of 18 proposals selected for studies under the Asteroid Redirect Mission Broad Agency Announcement (BAA).

Developed using Planetary Society member support and expert science and engineering teams, LIFE flew on the failed Phobos Sample Return mission. LIFE uses a specially developed, incredibly rugged, multiple sealed, 88 gram “biomodule” designed to safely hold a number of biological samples. LIFE is a test of one aspect of the "transpermia" hypothesis: the possibility that life can move between nearby planets inside rocks ejected into space by impact events. The passive biomodule would act as a simulated meteoroid in deep space (beyond the Earth’s magnetosphere) and experience the high radiation and microgravity aspects of that trip, while ensuring separation and containment of microbes. Organisms flown are selected to be diverse non-pathogenic (not dangerous to humans) organisms that are well characterized and in most cases are extremophiles (able to survive in extreme environments).