Space station mission targets science and genetics

Main Category: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 19 Apr 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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As the next space station mission targets science and genetics, the crew members of the International Space Station are making their final preparations for lift off for a mission in which science gets a burst of attention.

Russian Gennady Padalka, American Edward Michael Fincke and Dutchman André Kuipers are scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 0418 GMT on Monday 19 April.

The trio will arrive at the ISS two days later. They will spend about a week with the existing two-man crew, transferring supplies from their Soyuz vehicle and carrying out scientific experiments.

Kuipers will be aboard the ISS for only eight days, as he will come back with the returning crew, but he will use his time to carry out 15 scientific experiments. Science time has been very limited on the ISS due to the restrictions placed on crew numbers by the lack of a lifeboat capsule that seats more than three.

The experiments are part of the European Space Agency's DELTA mission and include comparing the gene expression of nematode worms born in space to controls on Earth and observing lightning in the atmosphere.

Human guinea pig

Another experiment is aimed at developing a monitor that mice used in future space experiments could swallow. This would allow researchers to measure their heart rate, temperature and movement in real time while minimising stress.

"Normally in animal experimentation you connect the animals to your measuring device, which is not really nice," says Dieter Isakeit of ESA's human spaceflight directorate.

The technology is still in the early stages, so the DELTA mission will be used to calibrate motion-sensing accelerometers on a large prototype device worn outside the body. "And the mouse in this case will be André Kuipers," Isakeit told New Scientist.

Two student-designed experiments were also awarded room on the mission. One of these will test whether bacteria that can produce electrical charges from organic material such as excrement are more active in space.

"This would be a nice way to produce electricity onboard long-travelling spacecraft - using waste products from astronauts to feed to bacteria," says Isakeit.

Annual leave

The new crew of Padalka and Fincke are due to return in October. But after that, crews may stay on the ISS for a year instead of the usual six months - if the five-member board that oversees the ISS approves the Russian proposal.

From The New Scientist
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