NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

ISS Science Highlight: STS-124/1J Crew Delivers Laboratory and Science Experiments

The International Space Station's robot arm moves the Japanese Pressurized Module from space shuttle Discovery's payload bay to its new home on the station. Image Credit: NASA

The STS-124/1J crew launched on May 31st taking with them the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA;s) Kibo laboratory. This new facility adds state-of-the-art science capability to the ISS. Kibo contains housing for 10 racks to be used for conducting microgravity science experiments, providing work areas, stowage, and communication. In addition, the Shuttle carried a new ISS crew member, Greg Chamitoff, who will be helping to outfit and test out the new Kibo laboratory. Garrett Reisman has wrapped up his on-orbit science activities and will be returning to Earth with the STS-124 crew.

The STS-124/1J crew delivered two new experiments for JAXA, PADLES and the Commercial Payload Program as well as NASA-s Midodrine-Long and Sleep-Long.

PADLES (Passive Dosimeter for Lifescience Experiment in Space) measures radiation exposure levels onboard the International Space Station. PADLES uses passive and integrating dosimeters to detect radiation levels. These dosimeters are located near the biological experiment facilities and on the end of Kibo.

Commercial Payload Program (Commercial) is sponsored by JAXA and will send commercial products into space for microgravity experiments.

Midodrine-Long (Test of Midodrine as a Countermeasure Against Post-Flight Orthostatic Hypotension - Long) is a test of the ability of the drug midodrine to reduce the incidence or severity of orthostatic hypotension. If successful, it will be employed as a countermeasure to the dizziness caused by the blood-pressure decrease that many astronauts experience upon returning to the Earth's gravity.

Sleep-Long (Sleep-Wake Actigraphy and Light Exposure During Spaceflight-Long) is a continuing examination of the effects of space flight and ambient light exposure on the sleep-wake cycles of the crewmembers during long-duration stays on the space station.

As part of the STS-124/1J mission, the Shuttle crew participated in several experiments, including a commercial payload and research supporting human research in microgravity:

The National Lab Pathfinder - Vaccine - 1B (NLP-Vaccine-1B) is a commercial payload serving as a pathfinder for the use of the ISS as a National Laboratory after the station assembly is complete. It contains Salmonella enterica, a disease causing organism -- and the most common cause of food poisoning. The experiment uses space flight to test how the Salmonella virulence changes. Knowledge from this experiment contributes to research on the development of vaccines for the prevention of infections on Earth and in microgravity. This is follow-on research to the NLP-Vaccine-1A experiment conducted on board STS-123/1J/A.

Integrated Immune-SDBI (Validation of Procedures for Monitoring Crew Member Immune Function - Short Duration Biological Investigation) uses blood and saliva samples from the Shuttle crewmembers to assess the clinical risks resulting from the adverse effects of space flight on the human immune system and will validate a flight-compatible immune monitoring strategy.

Sleep-Short (Sleep-Wake Actigraphy and Light Exposure During Spaceflight - Short) examines the effects of space flight on the sleep-wake cycles of the astronauts during Space Shuttle missions. Participating crewmembers will wear an Actiwatch to monitor and track the amount of light exposure and sleep patterns experienced.

The Shuttle is returning samples for the following investigations:

CSI-02 (Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus Science Insert - 02) is an educational suite of experiments designed to interest students in science, technology, engineering and math.

CSLM-2 (Coarsening in Solid Liquid Mixtures-2) examines the effects of microgravity on a phenomenon called coarsening that occurs when a metal alloy mixture crystallizes. The metal alloy samples will be brought home for analysis.

Integrated Immune (Validation of Procedures for Monitoring Crew Member Immune Function) uses blood and saliva samples from the ISS crewmembers to assess the clinical risks resulting from the adverse effects of space flight on the human immune system and will validate a flight-compatible immune monitoring strategy.

Nutrition (Nutrition Status Assessment) is the most comprehensive in-flight study done by NASA to date of human physiologic changes during long-duration space flight. Biological samples from the crew will be analyzed on the ground.

Repository (National Aeronautics and Space Administration Biological Specimen Repository) consists of urine and blood samples that are placed into a storage bank containing biological specimens collected preflight, inflight and postflight. These specimens will be used in future investigations that study the human response to microgravity.

CWRW (Reverse Genetic Approach to Exploring Genes Responsible for Cell Wall Dynamics in Supporting Tissues of Arabidopsis Under Microgravity Conditions and Role of Microtubule-Membrane-Cell Wall Continuum in Gravity Resistance in Plants) consists of two experiments sponsored by JAXA. Both of the investigations use Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) grown on the ISS to determine effect of microgravity on different aspects of the structure of the plants. The first experiment, Cell Wall, investigates the molecular mechanism that is regulated by gravity within the cell wall. The second experiment, Resist Wall, examines the structural connections between microtubules, plasma membrane, and cell wall in order to determine the mechanism of gravity resistance.

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