THIS WORK WOULD DEVELOP A NEW METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF BIOBURDENS (AND THE DETECTION OF MICROORGANISMS AND LIFE) FOR PLANETARY PROTECTION PURPOSES. IT WOULD ACCOMPLISH THIS BY THE DETECTION OF AN ORGANISM'S PROTEIN THOUGH LABELING THEM WITH A RADIOACTIVE LABEL [125JI. THIS WOULD PROVIDE GREATER SENSITIVITY AND UNIVERSALITY WHILE PRESERVING A GOOD TURN-AROUND TIME FOR ANALYSIS. THIS METHOD WILL UTILIZE THE CURRENT NASA SAMPLING TECHNIQUES AND THUS COULD BE DIRECTLY COMPARED AGAINST EXISTING METHODS. RADIOLABELING TECHNIQUES ARE INHERENTLY SENSITIVE AND [125JI BENEFITS FROM A 60 DAY HALF-LIFE PROVIDING GREATER ACTIVITY AND SIGNAL PER UNIT NUMBER OF LABELS. ADDITIONAL SENSITIVITY CAN BE OBTAINED BY USE OF MULTIPHOTON DETECTION SCREENING OUT BACKGROUND EVENTS AND DETECTING [125JI AT BELOW BACKGROUND LEVELS. THIS SHOULD ENABLE DETECTION TO LOWER LEVELS THAN PREVIOUSLY POSSIBLE DOWN TO SINGLE CELL DETECTION. BY UTILIZING A UNIVERSAL BIOSIGNATURE (CELL PROTEINS) THIS METHOD PROVIDES BROAD GENERALITY WITH REGARD TO THE RANGE OF ORGANISMS THAT CAN BE DETECTED AND ISN'T RESTRICTED TO ANY TYPE(S) OF ORGANISM THE ABILITY OF THE ORGANISMS TO BE CULTURED ETC. THIS WORK WOULD DEVELOP A QUICK AND SIMPLE METHOD FOR DETECTING THE PROTEIN FROM CELLS.