Space Biomedical Research Wraps Week as Station Gears Up for Two Cargo Missions
Space-based production of human tissues and preventing space-caused head and eye pressure were the main research topics at the end of the week for the Expedition 73 crew. The International Space Station is also gearing up for a pair cargo missions this month supplying the orbital residents with food, fuel, science experiments, and more.
The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft delivered bioprinted liver tissues to the orbital outpost on Aug. 25 to help researchers understand how microgravity affects the formation of blood vessels in engineered tissue. Flight Engineers Zena Cardman of NASA and Kimiya Yui of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency took turns on Friday processing the bioprinted tissue samples for placement inside an artificial gravity-generating research device. Researchers are monitoring how the tissues progress and develop over several weeks in weightlessness to gain new health insights. Result may lead to advanced treatments protecting astronauts on long-duration spaceflights and improve bioprinting techniques for patient therapies on Earth.
A common symptom of living in space is called “puffy face” where an astronaut’s face appears swollen and redder. This results from blood pooling toward an astronaut’s head potentially leading to eye structure and vision changes. NASA Flight Engineers Mike Fincke and Jonny Kim joined each other in the Columbus laboratory module and tested a specialized thigh cuff that may counteract the fluid shifts in weightlessness and reduce pressure on a crew member’s head and eyes. Fincke wore the thigh cuff as Kim measured his blood pressure and scanned his veins with the Ultrasound 2 device while chest electrodes collected cardiac data. A variety of other space station medical tools and techniques are used throughout the investigation to understand how an astronaut’s eyes, heart, and blood vessels respond to the thigh cuff.
Roscosmos Flight Engineer Oleg Platonov wrapped up a 24-hour session wearing sensors measuring his blood pressure and heart rate. Doctors were monitoring his cardiac activity as he worked, exercised, then slept for their ongoing biomedical research in microgravity.
Station Commander Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky set up the TORU, or tele-robotically operated rendezvous unit, simulator they will train on soon inside the Zvezda service module. The duo will practice remote-controlled spacecraft rendezvous techniques on the TORU simulator in the unlikely event an approaching Roscosmos spacecraft is unable to dock to the orbital outpost on its own. The training comes ahead of the launch of the Progress 93 cargo craft scheduled for 11:54 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Sept. 11 to deliver about three tons of cargo to the Expedition 73 crew two days later.
One day after the Progress 93 docks to Zvezda’s aft port, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo craft will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 6:11 p.m. on Sept. 14 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Cygnus XL, carrying over 11,000 pounds of new science and supplies, will orbit Earth for two-and-a-half days before it catches up to the space station where the Canadarm2 robotic arm will capture it then install it on the Unity module’s Earth-facing port.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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Mark A. Garcia
