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MIT Space Engineering Research Center testbed programs

The Space Engineering Research Center (SERC) at M.I.T., started in July 1988, has completed two and one-half years of research. This Semi-Annual Report presents annotated viewgraph material presented at the January 1991 Steering Committee and Technical Representative Review. The objective of the Space Engineering Research Center is to develop and disseminate a unified technology of controlled structures. There has been continued evolution of the concept of intelligent structures (including in this past year the first successful embedding of a microelectronic component into a structural element).

Crawley, Edward F.↗

NASA's Rodent Research Project: Validation of Capabilities for Conducting Long Duration Experiments in Space

Research using rodents is an essential tool for advancing biomedical research on Earth and in space. Prior rodent experiments on the Shuttle were limited by the short flight duration. The International Space Station (ISS) provides a new platform for conducting rodent experiments under long duration conditions. Rodent Research (RR)-1 was conducted to validate flight hardware, operations, and science capabilities that were developed at the NASA Ames Research Center. Twenty C57BL6J adult female mice were launched on Sept 21, 2014 in a Dragon Capsule (SpaceX-4), then transferred to the ISS for a total time of 21-22 days (10 commercial mice) or 37 days (10 validation mice). Tissues collected on-orbit were either rapidly frozen or preserved in RNAlater at -80C (n2group) until their return to Earth. Remaining carcasses on-orbit were rapidly frozen for dissection post-flight. The three controls groups at Kennedy Space Center consisted of: Basal mice euthanized at the time of launch, Vivarium controls housed in standard cages, and Ground Controls (GC) housed in flight hardware within an environmental chamber. Upon return to Earth, there were no differences in body weights between Flight (FLT) and GC at the end of the 37 days in space. Liver enzyme activity levels of FLT mice and all control mice were similar in magnitude to those of the samples that were processed under optimal conditions in the laboratory. Liver samples dissected on-orbit yielded high quality RNA (RIN8.99+-0.59, n7). Liver samples dissected post-flight from the intact, frozen FLT carcasses yielded RIN of 7.27 +- 0.52 (n6). Additionally, wet weights of various tissues were measured. Adrenal glands and spleen showed no significant differences in FLT compared to GC although thymus and livers weights were significantly greater in FLT compared to GC. Over 3,000 tissue aliquots collected post-flight from the four groups of mice were deposited into the Ames Life Science Data Archives for future Biospecimen Sharing Program. Together, the RR validation flight successfully demonstrates the capability to support long-duration experimentation on the ISS to achieve both basic science and biomedical objectives.

spaceflight↗

Opportunities for research on Space Station Freedom

NASA has allocated research accommodations on Freedom (equipment, utilities, etc.) to the program offices that sponsor space-based research and development as follows: Space Science and Applications (OSSA)--52 percent, Commercial Programs (OCP)--28 percent, Aeronautics and Space Technology (OAST)--12 percent, and Space Flight (OSF)--8 percent. Most of OSSA's allocation will be used for microgravity and life science experiments; although OSSA's space physics, astrophysics, earth science and applications, and solar system exploration divisions also will use some of this allocation. Other Federal agencies have expressed an interest in using Space Station Freedom. They include the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Geological Survey, National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy. Payload interfaces with space station lab support equipment must be simple, and experiment packages must be highly contained. Freedom's research facilities will feature International Standard Payload Racks (ISPR's), experiment racks that are about twice the size of a Spacelab rack. ESA's Columbus lab will feature 20 racks, the U.S. lab will have 12 racks, and the Japanese lab will have 10. Thus, Freedom will have a total of 42 racks versus 8 for Space lab. NASA is considering outfitting some rack space to accommodate small, self-contained payloads similar to the Get-Away-Special canisters and middeck-locker experiment packages flown on Space Shuttle missions. Crew time allotted to experiments on Freedom at permanently occupied capability will average 25 minutes per rack per day, compared to six hours per rack per day on Spacelab missions. Hence, telescience--the remote operation of space-based experiments by researchers on the ground--will play a very important role in space station research. Plans for supporting life sciences research on Freedom focus on the two basic goals of NASA 's space life sciences program: to ensure the health, safety, and productivity of humans in space and to acquire fundamental knowledge of biological processes. Space-based research has already shown that people and plants respond the same way to the microgravity environment: they lose structure. However, the mechanisms by which they respond are different, and researchers do not yet know much about these mechanisms. Life science research accommodations on Freedom will include facilities for experiments designed to address this and other questions, in fields such as gravitational biology, space physiology, and biomedical monitoring and countermeasures research.

Phillips, Robert W.↗

Space flight nutrition research: platforms and analogs

Conducting research during actual or simulated weightlessness is a challenging endeavor, where even the simplest activities may present significant challenges. This article reviews some of the potential obstacles associated with performing research during space flight and offers brief descriptions of current and previous space research platforms and ground-based analogs, including those for human, animal, and cell-based research. This review is intended to highlight the main issues of space flight research analogs and leave the specifics for each physiologic system for the other papers in this section.

NASA Discipline Regulatory Physiology↗

Space Weather Forecasting at NASA GSFC Space Weather Research Center

The NASA GSFC Space Weather Research Center (http://swrc.gsfc.nasa.gov) is committed to providing research forecasts and notifications to address NASA's space weather needs - in addition to its critical role in space weather education. We provide a host of services including spacecraft anomaly resolution, historical impact analysis, real-time monitoring and forecasting, tailored space weather alerts and products, weekly summaries and reports, and most recently - video casts. In this presentation, we will focus on how near real-time data (both in space and on ground), in combination with modeling capabilities and an innovative dissemination system called the Integrated Space Weather Analysis System (iSWA http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov), enable space weather forecasting and quality space weather products provided by our Center. A few critical near real-time data streams for space weather forecasting will be identified and discussed.

CMEs↗

FASAC Technical Assessment Report: Soviet Space Science Research

This report is the work of a panel of eight US scientists who surveyed and assessed Soviet research in the spare sciences. All of the panelists were very familiar with Soviet research through their knowledge of the published scientific literature and personal contacts with Soviet and other foreign colleagues. In addition, all of the panelists reviewed considerable additional open literature--scientific, and popular, including news releases. The specific disciplines of Soviet space science research examined in detail for the report were: solar-terrestrial research, lunar and planetary research, space astronomy and astrophysics, and, life sciences. The Soviet Union has in the past carried out an ambitious program in lunar exploration and, more recently, in studies of the inner planets, Mars and especially Venus. The Soviets have provided scientific data about the latter planet which has been crucial for studies of the planet's evolution. Future programs envision an encounter with Halley's Comet, in March 1986, and missions to Mars and asteroids. The Soviet programs in the life sciences and solar-terrestrial research have been long-lasting and systematically pursued. Much of the ground-based and space-based research in these two disciplines appears to be motivated by the requirement to establish long-term human habitation in near-Earth space. The Soviet contributions to new discoveries and understanding in observational space astronomy and astrophysics have been few. This is in significant contrast to the very excellent theoretical work contributed by Soviet scientists in this discipline.

Lanzerotti, L. J.↗

Impact of the International Space Station Research Results

The International Space Station (ISS) facilitates research that benefits human lives on Earth and serves as the primary testing ground for technology development to sustain life in the extreme environment of space. To date, investigators have published a wide range of ISS science results, from improved theories about the creation of stars to the outcome of data mining “omics” repositories of previously completed ISS investigations. Because of the unique microgravity environment of the ISS laboratory and the multidisciplinary and international nature of the research, analyzing ISS scientific impacts is an exceptional challenge. As a result, the ISS Program Science Forum (PSF), made up of senior science representatives across the ISS international partnership, uses various methods to describe the impacts of ISS research activities. For the most part, past papers written by PSF members to assess the overall ISS research impact have focused on exhibiting ISS research impact by quantifying ISS research output or its perceived benefits for humanity. This paper proposes a new assessment of ISS impact from the perspective of the end users’ needs. To that end, the authors use visualizations and metrics of scientific publication data to show the ISS research influence on traditional scientific fields, its global reach and the benefits to people across the globe.

Diallo, Ousmane N.↗

17th Space Photovoltaic Research and Technology Conference

The 17th Space Photovoltaic Research and Technology (SPRAT XVII) Conference was held September 11-13, 2001, at the Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI) in Cleveland, Ohio. The SPRAT conference, hosted by the Photovoltaic and Space Environments Branch of the NASA Glenn Research Center, brought together representatives of the space photovoltaic community from around the world to share the latest advances in space solar technology. This year's conference continued to build on many of the trends shown in SPRAT XVI; the use of new high-efficiency cells for commercial use and the development of novel array concepts such as Boeing's Solar Tile concept. In addition, new information was presented on space environmental interactions with solar arrays.

Jenkins, Phillip↗

18th Space Photovoltaic Research and Technology Conference

The 18th Space Photovoltaic Research and Technology (SPRAT XVIII) Conference was held September 16 to 18, 2003, at the Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI) in Brook Park, Ohio. The SPRAT conference, hosted by the Photovoltaic and Space Environments Branch of the NASA Glenn Research Center, brought together representatives of the space photovoltaic community from around the world to share the latest advances in space solar cell technology. This year s conference continued to build on many of the trends shown in SPRAT XVII-the continued advances of thin-film and multijunction solar cell technologies and the new issues required to qualify those types of cells for space applications.

Morton, Thomas L.↗

Proceedings of the 19th Space Photovoltaic Research and Technology Conference

The 19th Space Photovoltaic Research and Technology Conference (SPRAT XIX) was held September 20 to 22, 2005, at the Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI) in Brook Park, Ohio. The SPRAT Conference, hosted by the Photovoltaic and Space Environments Branch of the NASA Glenn Research Center, brought together representatives of the space photovoltaic community from around the world to share the latest advances in space solar cell technology. This year's conference continued to build on many of the trends shown in SPRAT XVIII-the continued advances of thin-film and multijunction solar cell technologies and the new issues required to qualify those types of cells for space applications.

Castro, Stephanie↗

Space biology research development

The purpose of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute is to conduct and promote research related activities regarding the search for extraterrestrial life, particularly intelligent life. Such research encompasses the broad discipline of 'Life in the Universe', including all scientific and technological aspects of astronomy and the planetary sciences, chemical evolution, the origin of life, biological evolution, and cultural evolution. The primary purpose was to provide funding for the Principal Investigator to collaborate with the personnel of the SETI Institute and the NASA-Ames Research center in order to plan and develop space biology research on and in connection with Space Station Freedom; to promote cooperation with the international partners in the space station; to conduct a study on the use of biosensors in space biology research and life support system operation; and to promote space biology research through the initiation of an annual publication 'Advances in Space Biology and Medicine'.

Bonting, Sjoerd L.↗

Space Toxicology: Environmental Health Considerations during Spaceflight Operations and Potential Paths for Research

Space Toxicology is a specialized discipline for spaceflight, space habitation and occupation of celestial bodies including planets, moons and asteroids [1]. Astronaut explorers face unique challenges to their health while working and living with limited resources for rescue and medical care during space operation. At its core the practice of space toxicology to identify, assess and predict potential chemical contaminants and limit the astronaut s exposure to these environmental factors in order to protect crew health. Space toxicologists are also charged with setting safe exposure limits that will protect the astronaut against a multitude of chemical exposures, in a physiologically altered state. In order to maintain sustained occupation in space, toxicological risks are gauged and managed within the context of isolation, continual exposures, reuse of air and water, limited rescue options, and the necessary use of highly toxic compounds required for propulsion. As the space program move towards human presence and exploration other celestial bodies in situ toxicological risks, such as inhalation of unusual and/or reactive mineral dusts must also be analyzed and controlled. Placing humans for long-term presence in space creates several problems and challenges to the long-term health of the crew, such as bone-loss and immunological challenges and has spurred research into acute, chronic and episodic exposure of the pulmonary system to mineral dusts [2]. NASA has demonstrated that lunar soil contains several types of reactive dusts, including an extremely fine respirable component. In order to protect astronaut health, NASA is now investigating the toxicity of this unique class of dusts. Understanding how these reactive components behave "biochemically" in a moisture-rich pulmonary environment will aid in determining how toxic these particles are to humans. The data obtained from toxicological examination of lunar dusts will determine the human risk criteria for lunar dust exposure and produce a lunar health standard.

Khan-Mayberry, Noreen N.↗

Space medicine research: Needs for the 21st century

Space medicine research in the 21st century will continue to focus on the four major areas including: (1) expansion of the current incomplete knowledge base of clinical and subclinical physiological changes due to microgravity; (2) development of countermeasures to extend the capabilities of the human performance envelope in extended duration flights; (3) development of novel methods for delivering all aspects of a comprehensive health care system in extreme remote conditions: and (4) further research and application of systems for biological materials processing. New space transportation vehicles will place unique physiologic and human factors demands on the human system, while providing better access to platforms for materials processing. Success in meeting the demands in each of the noted research areas will require an extensive, interactive team approach. Personnel from the medical research,operational, developmental, and basic science communities will be essential to success.

Pepper, L. J.↗

The NASA Space Radiation Research Program

We present a comprehensive overview of the NASA Space Radiation Research Program. This program combines basic research on the mechanisms of radiobiological action relevant for improving knowledge of the risks of cancer, central nervous system and other possible degenerative tissue effects, and acute radiation syndromes from space radiation. The keystones of the NASA Program are five NASA Specialized Center's of Research (NSCOR) investigating space radiation risks. Other research is carried out through peer-reviewed individual investigations and in collaboration with the US Department of Energies Low-Dose Research Program. The Space Radiation Research Program has established the Risk Assessment Project to integrate data from the NSCOR s and other peer-reviewed research into quantitative projection models with the goals of steering research into data and scientific breakthroughs that will reduce the uncertainties in current risk projections and developing the scientific knowledge needed for future individual risk assessment approaches and biological countermeasure assessments or design. The NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) at Brookhaven National Laboratory was created by the Program to simulate space radiation on the ground in support of the above research programs. New results from NSRL will be described.

Cucinotta, Francis A.↗

Spacelab - New tool for research and investigations in space

The Orbiter/Spacelab system is regarded as an entity that provides an orbital platform for experiments in a wide variety of scientific and technological fields. The paper presents a brief summary of the Spacelab system and its operation as an introduction to a new tool to be available to an international community of users through the 1980s. Investigations have shown that all the more conventional fields of space research and applications can benefit from the use of Spacelab, such as astronomy, magnetospheric physics, remote sensing, communications, and many others. It is expected that new areas that would gain from using Spacelab will be recognized as its operational life matures. Numerous sketches and photographs supplement the text.

Gibson, R.↗

Space Photovoltaic Research and Technology 1995

The Fourteenth Space Photovoltaic Research and Technology conference was held at the NASA Lewis Research Center from October 24-26, 1995. The abstracts presented in this volume report substantial progress in a variety of areas in space photovoltaics. Technical and review papers were presented in many areas, including high efficiency GaAs and InP solar cells, GaAs/Ge cells as commercial items, high efficiency multiple bandgap cells, solar cell and array technology, heteroepitaxial cells, thermophotovoltaic energy conversion, and space radiation effects. Space flight data on a variety of cells were also presented.

Geoffrey Landis↗

Space Photovoltaic Research and Technology 1995

The Fourteenth Space Photovoltaic Research and Technology conference was held at the NASA Lewis Research Center from October 24-26, 1995. The abstracts presented in this volume report substantial progress in a variety of areas in space photovoltaics. Technical and review papers were presented in many areas, including high efficiency GaAs and InP solar cells, GaAs/Ge cells as commercial items, high efficiency multiple bandgap cells, solar cell and array technology, heteroepitaxial cells, thermophotovoltaic energy conversion, and space radiation effects. Space flight data on a variety of cells were also presented.

Landis, Geoffrey↗