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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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13 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2014

Rodent Research on the International Space Station - A Look Forward

Rodent Research on the International Space Station (ISS) is one of the highest priority science activities being supported by NASA and is planned for up to two flights per year. The first Rodent Research flight, Rodent Research-1 (RR-1) validates the hardware and basic science operations (dissections and tissue preservation). Subsequent flights will add new capabilities to support rodent research on the ISS. RR-1 will validate the following capabilities: animal husbandry for up to 30 days, video downlink to support animal health checks and scientific analysis, on-orbit dissections, sample preservation in RNA. Later and formalin, sample transfer from formalin to ethanol (hindlimbs), rapid cool-down and subsequent freezing at -80 of tissues and carcasses, sample return and recovery. RR-2, scheduled for SpX-6 (Winter 20142015) will add the following capabilities: animal husbandry for up to 60 days, RFID chip reader for individual animal identification, water refill and food replenishment, anesthesia and recovery, bone densitometry, blood collection (via cardiac puncture), blood separation via centrifugation, soft tissue fixation in formalin with transfer to ethanol, and delivery of injectable drugs that require frozen storage prior to use. Additional capabilities are also planned for future flights and these include but are not limited to male mice, live animal return, and the development of experiment unique equipment to support science requirements for principal investigators that are selected for flight. In addition to the hardware capabilities to support rodent research the Crew Office has implemented a training program in generic rodent skills for all USOS crew members during their pre-assignment training rotation. This class includes training in general animal handling, euthanasia, injections, and dissections. The dissection portion of this training focuses on the dissection of the spleen, liver, kidney with adrenals, brain, eyes, and hindlimbs. By achieving and maintaining proficiency in these basic skills as part of the nominal astronaut training curriculum this allows the rodent research program to focus the mission specific crew training on scientific requirements of research and operations flow.

Experimental capabilities↗
NASA NTRS2002

Pest Control on the "Fly"

FlyCracker(R), a non-toxic and environmentally safe pesticide, can be used to treat and control fly problems in closed environments such as milking sheds, cattle barns and hutches, equine stables, swine pens, poultry plants, food-packing plants, and even restaurants, as well as in some outdoor animal husbandry environments. The product can be applied safely in the presence of animals and humans, and was recently permitted for use on organic farms as livestock production aids. FlyCracker's carbohydrate technology kills fly larvae within 24 hours. By killing larvae before they reach the adult stages, FlyCracker eradicates another potential breeding population. Because the process is physical-not chemical-flies and other insects never develop resistance to the treatment, giving way to unlimited use of product, while still keeping the same powerful effect.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1983

Ames Research Center Life Sciences Payload Project for Spacelab Mission 3

The Research Animal Holding Facility, developed to support rodent and squirrel monkey animal husbandry in the Spacelab environment, is to be tested during the Spacelab Mission 3 flight. The configuration and function of the payload hardware elements, the assembly and test program, the operational rationale, and the scientific approach of this mission are examined. Topics covered include animal life support systems, the squirrel monkey restraint, the camera-mirror system, the dynamic environment measurement system, the biotelemetry system, and the ground support equipment. Consideration is also given to animal pretests, loading the animals during their 12 hour light cycle, and animal early recovery after landing. This mission will be the first time that relatively large samples of monkeys and rats will be flown in space and also cared for and observed by man.

Callahan, P. X.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Significant Atmospheric Aerosol Pollution Caused by World Food Cultivation

Particulate matter is a major concern for public health, causing cancer and cardiopulmonary mortality. Therefore, governments in most industrialized countries monitor and set limits for particulate matter. To assist policy makers, it is important to connect the chemical composition and severity of particulate pollution to its sources. Here we show how agricultural practices, livestock production, and the use of nitrogen fertilizers impact near-surface air quality. In many densely populated areas, aerosols formed from gases that are released by fertilizer application and animal husbandry dominate over the combined contributions from all other anthropogenic pollution. Here we test reduction scenarios of combustion-based and agricultural emissions that could lower air pollution. For a future scenario, we find opposite trends, decreasing nitrate aerosol formation near the surface while total tropospheric loads increase. This suggests that food production could be increased to match the growing global population without sacrificing air quality if combustion emission is decreased.

public health↗
NASA NTRS2018

Semi-Autonomous Rodent Habitat for Deep Space Exploration

NASA has flown animals to space as part of trailblazing missions and to understand the biological responses to spaceflight. Mice traveled in the Lunar Module with the Apollo 17 astronauts and now mice are frequent research subjects in LEO on the ISS. The ISS rodent missions have focused on unravelling biological mechanisms, better understanding risks to astronaut health, and testing candidate countermeasures. A critical barrier for longer-duration animal missions is the need for humans-in-the-loop to perform animal husbandry and perform routine tasks during a mission. Using autonomous or telerobotic systems to alleviate some of these tasks would enable longer-duration missions to be performed at the Deep Space Gateway. Rodent missions performed using the Gateway as a platform could address a number of critical risks identified by the Human Research Program (HRP), as well as Space Biology Program questions identified by NRC Decadal Survey on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space, (2011). HRP risk areas of potentially greatest relevance that the Gateway rodent missions can address include those related to visual impairment (VIIP) and radiation risks to central nervous system, cardiovascular disease, as well as countermeasure testing. Space Biology focus areas addressed by the Gateway rodent missions include mechanisms and combinatorial effects of microgravity and radiation. The objectives of the work proposed here are to 1) develop capability for semi-autonomous rodent research in cis-lunar orbit, 2) conduct key experiments for testing countermeasures against low gravity and space radiation. The hardware and operations system developed will enable experiments at least one month in duration, which potentially could be extended to one year in duration. To gain novel insights into the health risks to crew of deep space travel (i.e., exposure to space radiation), results obtained from Gateway flight rodents can be compared to ground control groups and separate groups of mice exposed to simulated Galactic Cosmic Radiation (at the NASA Space Radiation Lab). Results can then be compared to identical experiments conducted on the ISS. Together results from Gateway, ground-based, and ISS rodent experiments will provide novel insight into the effects of space radiation.

deep space gateway↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The NASA Space Radiation Laboratory

The Space Radiation Element (SRE) of the Human Research Program (HRP) aims to establish a robust biospecimen and tissue sharing collection (BTSC) to improve sample collection, tracking, access, distribution, and usability to maximize scientific return with intention. Future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond will require the appropriate characterization and mitigation of the many of the health risks associated with cosmic radiation exposure. An ongoing partnership between the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) and the Office of Science for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has established the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) at the DOE Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) to create a space radiation ground-analog. NSRL provides the capability to use simulated space radiation with high energy ion beams for assessment of biological outcomes relevant space radiation risks as well as electronics testing for avionics safety. Current NSRL irradiation capabilities include a variety of exposure variables available for experimental needs: - Up to approximately 10 Gy/min dose-rates with a 20 × 20 cm 2 beam area. - Down to several hundred particles within a 60 × 60 cm 2 beam area. - Dose fractionation across multiple days is also possible. - For most radiobiology experiments the exposure structure, referred to as “spills”, has a 4 second repetition time where ions are extracted uniformly during a 0.3-0.4 second spill, followed by a ~3.6 second recovery time when the beam is off. - Both single or mixed-beam field irradiations are possible including a full 33-beam GCRSim and 6-beam SimGCRSim. Biological experiment capabilities: Two labs for Cell/tissue culture procedures can be conducted in two lab spaces with a separate lab available for sample processing that contains two chemical fume hoods. Sixteen fully equipped cell culture laboratories are available in the NSRL’s Long Term Support area in the Medical Building. The current vivarium configuration can support approximately 8,000 rodents/year for animal-based experiments. The NSRL area animal husbandry system includes five caging racks with 48 spaces in each coupled to a ventilation/filtration system in largest room, and two smaller rooms with conventional caging systems. Schedule: The NSRL is nominally open for experiment scheduling during three runs per year; Spring (March – May), Summer (May - June), and Fall (Sept – Nov). NASA funding is not required for biological and electronic testing experiments at the NSRL.

Jason M Weeks↗
NASA NTRS2000

Experience-dependent development of spinal motor neurons

Locomotor activity in many species undergoes pronounced alterations in early postnatal life, and environmental cues may be responsible for modifying this process. To determine how these events are reflected in the nervous system, we studied rats reared under two different conditions-the presence or absence of gravity-in which the performance of motor operations differed. We found a significant effect of rearing environment on the size and complexity of dendritic architecture of spinal motor neurons, particularly those that are likely to participate in postural control. These results provide evidence that neurons subserving motor function undergo activity-dependent maturation in early postnatal life in a manner analogous to sensory systems.

STS-90 Shuttle Project↗
NASA NTRS1985

Rat maintenance in the Research Animal Holding Facility during the flight of Space Lab 3

To test the husbandry capabilities of the Research Animal Holding Facility (RAHF) during space flight, 24 male rats were flown on Spacelab 3 for 7 days. Twelve large rats (400 g, LF), 5 of which had telemetry devices implanted (IF), and 12 small rats (200 g, SF) were housed in the RAHF. Examination 3 hr after landing (R + 3) revealed the rats to be free of injury, well nourished, and stained with urine. At R + 10 the rats were lethargic and atonic with hyperemia of the extremities and well groomed except for a middorsal area stained with urine and food. Both LF and SF rats showed weight gains comparable to their IG controls; IF rats grew less than controls. Food and water consumption were similar for flight and control groups. Plasma concentrations of total protein, sodium, albumin and creatinine did not differ between flight and control groups. LF and SF rats had elevated plasma glucose, and SF rats had increased blood urea nitrogen, potassium and glutamic pyruvic transaminase. These observations indicate that rats maintained in the RAHF were healthy, well nourished and experienced minimal stress; physiological changes in the rats can thus be attributed to the effects of space flight.

Fast, T.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Modelling global methane emissions from livestock: Biological and nutritional controls

The available observations of methane production from the literature have been compiled into a ruminant methane data base. This data base includes 400 treatment mean observations of methane losses from cattle and sheep, and minor numbers of measurements from other species. Methane loss varied from 2.0 to 11.6 percent of dietary gross energy. Measurements included describe the many different weights and physiological states of the animals fed and diets ranging from all forage to all concentrate diets or mixtures. An auxiliary spreadsheet lists approximately 1000 individual animal observations. Many important concepts have emerged from our query and analysis of this data set. The majority of the world's cattle, sheep, and goats under normal husbandry circumstances likely produce methane very close to 6 percent of their daily diets gross energy (2 percent of the diet by weight). Although individual animals or losses from specific dietary research circumstances can vary considerably, the average for the vast majority of groups of ruminant livestock are likely to fall between 5.5 to 6.5 percent. We must caution, however, that little experimental data is available for two-thirds of the world's ruminants in developing countries. Available evidence suggests similar percentage of emissions, but this supposition needs confirmation. More importantly, data is skimpy or unavailable to describe diet consumption, animal weight, and class distribution.

Johnson, Donald E.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Impacts of a Changing Climate and Land Use on Reindeer Pastoralism: Indigenous Knowledge and Remote Sensing

The Arctic is home to many indigenous peoples, including those who depend on reindeer herding for their livelihood, in one of the harshest environments in the world. For the largely nomadic peoples, reindeer not only form a substantial part of the Arctic food base and economy, but they are also culturally important, shaping their way of life, mythologies, festivals and ceremonies. Reindeer pastoralism or husbandry has been practiced by numerous peoples all across Eurasia for thousands of years and involves moving herds of reindeer, which are very docile animals, from pasture to pasture depending on the season. Thus, herders must adapt on a daily basis to find optimal conditions for their herds according to the constantly changing conditions. Climate change and variability plus rapid development are increasingly creating major changes in the physical environment, ecology, and cultures of these indigenous reindeer herder communities in the North, and climate changes are occurring significantly faster in the Arctic than the rest of the globe, with correspondingly dramatic impacts (Oskal, 2008). In response to these changes, Eurasian reindeer herders have created the EALAT project, a comprehensive new initiative to study these impacts and to develop local adaptation strategies based upon their traditional knowledge of the land and its uses - in targeted partnership with the science and remote sensing community - involving extensive collaborations and coproduction of knowledge to minimize the impacts of the various changes. This chapter provides background on climate and development challenges to reindeer husbandry across the Arctic and an overview of the EALAT initiative, with an emphasis on indigenous knowledge, remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and other scientific data to 'co-produce' datasets for use by herders for improved decision-making and herd management. It also provides a description of the EALAT monitoring data integration and sharing system and portal being developed for reindeer pastoralism. In addition, the chapter provides some preliminary results from the EALAT Project, including some early remote sensing research results.

Maynard, N. G.↗
NASA NTRS1977

The chimpanzee as a flight candidate

Some of the characteristics that make the chimpanzee an attractive animal model (anatomy, size, intelligence, and durability) also create some very unique problems. The universally recognized problems of availability and expensive maintenance, combined with the often underestimated problems associated with routine housing, husbandry, restraint, and medical management, severely limit the availabe avenues of approach. Problems involved in using implantable, multichannel radiotelemetry systems to monitor cardiodynamics in chimpanzees are discussed.

Source record↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Water Shelf Life for Long-Duration Rodent Research Missions

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Rodent Research Project habitat is a highly-specialized rodent husbandry caging system that enables mice to be flown to the International Space Station for a variety of bioscience studies in the unique microgravity and radiation environment. The habitat accommodates an internal water supply box containing four water access points and two one liter flexible plastic sterile blood bags for storage. Two access points are provided on each side of the habitat, which accommodates five animals per side. Due to the nature of operations on the Space Station – including limited fluid handling – water cannot be changed out weekly as in ground-based vivariums. Water is added to the system a maximum of eighteen months prior to being provided to rodents. The dependable provision of high-quality drinking water is essential for both the welfare of rodents and the scientific integrity of the studies in which they are involved. The robust, multi-stage water preparation process involves the autoclave sterilization of deionized water, the addition of iodine to minimize biofilms, and filtration through a sterile filter to ensure removal of bacteria and other contaminants. The water is then loaded into the sterile blood bags as part of the automated delivery system. A water storage test determined that the shelf life of this water in the habitat could be increased up to four years from a previous eighteen months. This facilitates the ability to pre-position habitats on Station as well as demonstrates that the habitat’s water system can be utilized on future long-duration and deep space missions involving rodents.

Tyler Marsh↗
NASA NTRS2008

Eurasian Reindeer Pastoralism in a Changing Climate: Indigenous Knowledge and NASA Remote Sensing

It is intended that Reindeer Mapper/EALAT will be able to provide reindeer herders with an efficient tool for managing the real-time movements and migrations of their herds through enabling improved efficiency in linking different members of the herder settlements or communities and providing real-time local, satellite or other data (e.g., ice melt in lakes and rivers, weather events), thus enabling real time adjustments to herd movements to avoid problems such as changing weather/climate conditions, freeze-thaw "lock-out" problems, or take advantage of availability of better pasturelands along migration routes. The system is being designed to incorporate local data to allow users to bring their own data into the system for analysis in addition to the data provided by the system itself. With the local information of the population, up to date environmental data and habitat characteristics, the system could generate maps depicting important features of interest for reindeer managers. One of the products derived from the planned Reindeer Mapper system will be a web-based graphic display that allows analysts to quickly pinpoint areas of interest such as those with large concentrations of reindeer and provide surrounding environmental information. The system could be automatically updated with near-real-time information such as hourly precipitation and snowfall rate and accumulation, daily surface and air temperatures, and vegetation cover conditions. The system could bring attention to the proximity of human and animal populations as part of the need for control response. A local GIS will bring these many layers together with several supporting models, showing only a straightforward graphic of the real-time situation in the field. Because the system proposed will be operating in the Internet environment, it should be virtually accessible from any network computers and wireless remote access from the field. The International Center for Reindeer Husbandry in Kautokeino, Norway, is providing regional and international coordination of and access to data sets and expertise, and will act as overall clearinghouse for EALAT information.

Maynard, N. G.↗