Crew Works Biology, Botany, and Physics after Cargo Ship’s Arrival

The ISS Progress 82 cargo craft, packed with three tons of food, fuel, and supplies, is pictured shortly after docking to the space station's Poisk module.
The ISS Progress 82 cargo craft, packed with three tons of food, fuel, and supplies, is pictured shortly after docking to the space station’s Poisk module.

Life science, space gardening, and physics filled the Expedition 68 crew’s research schedule at the end of the week aboard the International Space Station. Meanwhile, three tons of new cargo are being unpacked after its arrival overnight.

A host of biomedical studies have been underway this week on the orbiting lab as scientists on the ground explore what happens to the human body when living in weightlessness. Insights help astronauts stay fit and healthy beyond Earth’s gravity and provide an array of solutions and innovations improving life for those back on Earth.

NASA Flight Engineer Josh Cassada took charge of eye scans on Friday imaging the retinas of crewmates Nicole Mann of NASA and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Mann then assumed control of the medical imaging hardware and scanned the eyes of NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio. The ocular examinations let doctors understand how microgravity affects the eye and provide countermeasures to protect a crew member’s sight.

Cassada and Mann started Friday morning collecting their blood samples and spinning them in a centrifuge before stowing the blood tubes in a science freezer. Researchers analyze the samples taken before, during, and after a space flight and compare them to samples from other astronauts adding to knowledge of the changes a crew member’s body goes through on and off the Earth.

Growing vegetables on spaceships and space habitats using soilless methods is a top research priority since cargo missions delivering food to the crews will be less feasible beyond low-Earth orbit. Rubio contributed to that research during the morning nourishing and tending to vegetables growing using hydroponic and aeroponic techniques for the XROOTS station botany study. Space agriculture is key to an astronaut’s health if crews are to sustain themselves farther away from Earth.

Space physics is also important as scientists and engineers observe what happens to a variety of materials exposed to ultra-high temperatures with implications for the development and manufacturing of new and advanced materials. The Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF) in the Kibo laboratory module is a research device allowing safe thermophysical research in microgravity. Wakata opened up the ELF today servicing samples inside the device that uses lasers to heat specimens above 2,000 degrees Celsius to obtain data on a material’s density, surface tension, and viscosity.

The three cosmonauts aboard the station shifted their sleep schedules today following Thursday night’s arrival of the ISS Progress 82 resupply ship. Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin were on duty when the Progress 82 with its three tons of food, fuel, and supplies docked to the Poisk module at 10:49 p.m. EDT on Thursday. The duo conducted standard leak checks and pressure equalization before opening the hatch to Progress and unpacking the new cargo. Flight Engineer Anna Kikina was also working overnight checking robotics components and maintaining lab systems.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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