Sanford Lab, with over 370 miles of shafts, drifts and ramps, serves the project as DeMMO, or the Deep Mine Microbial Observatory. The DeMMO effort is run by Dr. Maggie Osburn at Northwestern University, who conceptualized and established the DeMMO site. The project began as a NASA astrobiology-funded effort and is now supported by NASA's exobiology program and other partners.
The observatory at Sanford Lab is a network of boreholes that intersect fluid-filled fractures on the 800, 2000, 3950 and 4850 levels. Kruger visits two to three times a year to collect samples from the various boreholes.
