A SpaceX Dragon supply spacecraft carrying more than 5,800 pounds of science experiments, crew supplies and other cargo is enroute to the International Space Station after liftoff at 8:44 p.m. EDT Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft lifted off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy on the 25th Commercial Supply Services mission for NASA. It is scheduled to autonomously dock with the space station at about 11:20 a.m. on Saturday, July 16, and stay there for about a month. Information about the arrival will begin at 10 a.m. on NASA TV, the agency’s website and the NASA app. Among the science experiments that Dragon delivers to the space station are:
Earth Dust Mapping
The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT), developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, uses NASA imaging spectroscopy technology to measure the mineral composition of dust in arid regions of Earth. Mineral dust blown into the air can travel significant distances and affect Earth’s climate, weather, vegetation, and more. For example, dust containing dark minerals that absorb sunlight can heat an area, while light mineral dust can cool it. Blown dust also affects air quality, surface conditions such as the rate of snowmelt, and the health of phytoplankton in the ocean. The research collects images over a year to create maps of the mineral composition of dust-producing regions on Earth. Such mapping could advance our understanding of the effects of mineral dust on human populations now and in the future.
Faster aging of the immune system
Aging is associated with changes in the immune response known as immunosenescence. Microgravity causes changes in human immune cells that resemble this condition, but occur faster than the actual aging process on Earth. Immunosenescence research, sponsored by the US National Laboratory on the International Space Station, uses tissue chips to study how microgravity affects immune function during flight and whether immune cells recover after flight. Tissue chips are small devices that contain human cells in a 3D structure, allowing scientists to test how these cells respond to stress, drugs and genetic changes.
Earth in space
On Earth, complex communities of microorganisms perform key functions in soil, including cycling carbon and other nutrients and supporting plant growth. Microbiome Dynamics in Space sponsored by NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division investigates how microgravity affects metabolic interactions in soil microbial communities. This research focuses on the microbial communities that break down chitin, a natural carbon polymer on Earth.
High school student weather study
BeaverCube is an educational mission that teaches high school students about aeronautical science by having them design a CubeSat. BeaverCube will host one visible and two infrared sensors to measure cloud properties, ocean surface temperatures, and ocean color to study Earth’s climate and weather systems. It will also demonstrate an application for using shape memory alloy technology through an in-orbit calibration technique.
Genes, no cells
Cell-free technology is a platform for protein production without the specialized equipment of live cells that need to be cultured. Genes in Space-9, sponsored by the National Lab, demonstrates cell-free protein production in microgravity and evaluates two cell-free biosensors that can detect specific target molecules. This technology could provide a simple, portable, and inexpensive tool for medical diagnostics, on-demand drug and vaccine production, and environmental monitoring on future space missions.
Better concrete
Biopolymer Research for In-Situ Capabilities looks at how microgravity affects the process of creating a concrete alternative made from organic and in-situ materials such as lunar or Martian dust, known as a biopolymer soil composite. Using available resources where construction is taking place allows for increased shielding. These are just a few of the hundreds of research currently being conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory in the fields of biology and biotechnology, physical sciences, and Earth and space science. Advances in these areas will help keep astronauts healthy during long-duration space travel and demonstrate technologies for future human and robotic exploration beyond low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars through NASA’s Artemis program.
For more read: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-spacex-launch-climate-science-research-more-to-space-station
