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Artificial retina, hydroponic and aeroponic planting, what experiments will crew-4 astronauts conduct on the space station?

On April 27, local time, NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 mission was launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station. A total of four astronauts flew the mission, NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines and Jessica Watkins, and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency. Hines and Watkins were on a space mission for the first time, and Lindgren and Christofretty were the second.

Along with the astronauts of spaceX's Dragon Freedom spacecraft, there are some important scientific studies that go into low-Earth orbit, and here are some details of them:

Retinal alternatives

For millions of people on Earth suffering from degenerative diseases of the retina, including retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, artificial retinas are a potential treatment option for restoring effective vision. The ISS National Lab sponsored a protein-based Artificial Retina Manufacturing study evaluating the manufacturing process for the development of artificial human retinas using a light-activated protein called bacteriorhodopsin.

CubeLab's pre-flight imagery, featuring LambdaVision's protein-based artificial retinal fabrication study, will test artificial retinas containing light-activated proteins.

Image credit: LambdaVision

Bacterial rhodopsin can replace the function of damaged photoreceptor cells in the eye, involving a process of making implants by coating layers of thin films layer by layer. The microgravity environment can better limit the aggregation and settlement of particles, thereby improving the quality and stability of the film formation. Previously, researchers from LambdaVision in the United States have completed early experiments on the space station to determine whether the effect of the film-forming process in the microgravity environment is more advantageous, and the investigation of this mission is based on this work.

The wonder of wireless

Wireless Compose-2 is a survey from the European Space Agency that demonstrates wireless networks support scientific experiments and provide precise control and navigation of free-flying objects. One such free-flying object is Cimon, an artificial intelligence assistant currently being tested by the European Space Agency on the space station.

Wireless Compose-2 also includes experiments at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), namely the operation of Ballistocardiography for Extraterrestrial Applications and long-term missions (BEAT), which uses sensors built into clothing to monitor and measure heart parameters such as blood pressure. Often, scientists can only obtain this data using ultrasound and computed tomography or computed X-ray imaging, a technique that could provide a deeper understanding of how the human cardiovascular system behaves in space and how it changes during long-term space missions.

This image shows some of the components of the Smart-Shirt garment, including integrated sensors, wiring, and a communication module for transmitting scientific data over a wireless link for THE BEAT experiment as part of the Wireless Compose-2 investigation. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has developed a wireless network infrastructure on the space station to support scientific experiments on the space station, and the Wireless Compose-2 technology demonstration is based on this work.

Image source: DLR

In addition to these two new experiments, Crew-4 will continue ongoing experiments on the space station, including:

Student software in space

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) sponsors a program called Kibo-RPC, through which students on Earth can create their own programs to control Astrobee, one of the space station's free-flying robots. The aim of the program is to provide participants with hands-on experience in space science, technology, engineering and mathematics to help inspire the next generation of explorers.

During her last spaceflight, Christopheretty worked on a similar student project, SPHERES-VERTIGO, in which students wrote software that successfully used multiple free-flying satellites to build three-dimensional models of target objects. The ability to create such models of unknown objects in space using one or two small satellites has a wide range of potential applications for space missions.

In 2014, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Christofretti conducted a test run of SPHERES during her last space station mission. In the survey, students wrote software to guide multiple free-flying satellites to create three-dimensional models of target objects.

Image credit: NASA

Mom you see, there is no soil!

Using hydroponic (liquid) and pneumatic (air) techniques, XROOTS experiments perform plant cultivation on the space station without soil or other traditional growth media. The researchers plan to use video and still images to assess how well plants grow throughout their life cycle. Current space-based plant systems are still small, using particulate media-based systems to transport water and nutrients, which cannot be well expanded in space due to quality, containment, maintenance and hygiene issues. Hydroponic and pneumatic technologies could provide larger-scale crop production for future space exploration, and the system components developed for this survey could also enhance plant cultivation in certain terrestrial environments, such as greenhouse environments, to provide better food security for people on Earth.

Lindgren had conducted the Veg-01 experiment on a previous mission, a system that used substrates, small, scalable units containing growth medium and seeds to grow plants, which produced red longleaf lettuce, and Lindgren himself was one of the first to taste space plants. Crew-4 members should not eat the plants produced by the XROOTS experiment this time, and they will be sent back to Earth for analysis.

NASA astronaut Shel Lindgren took a bite of lettuce harvested from the VEG-01 survey during expedition 44.

Image credit: NASA

Medical monitoring

Monitoring the health of astronauts is a unique challenge in deep space exploration missions, as space for medical equipment is extremely limited on the space station and the samples captured cannot be returned to Earth in time for analysis.

This pre-flight view of the rHEALTH ONE hardware shows the liquid bottles used in the experimental operation, without the custom bags needed for the bottles to operate in microgravity.

Image source: rHEALTH

The rHEALTH demonstration test uses improved, commercially available equipment to medically diagnose certain conditions of astronauts using a flow cytometer, a method of classifying and identifying cells using lasers to analyze cell counts and cell signatures; detect microbes, biomarkers, and proteins; and diagnose related diseases such as blood cancers. The demo verified that the appropriate hardware could also operate in a spatial environment while evaluating accuracy. The technology could also provide timely, cost-effective, reliable, and convenient diagnostic testing for patients on the planet who do not have access to a robust healthcare infrastructure.

Reference source: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/crew-4-head-to-iss-microgravity-science

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