Crew-2 members are pictured during a workout at the SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, California. From left: Thomas Pesquet of the ESA (European Space Agency), NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japanese Aviation Agency (JAXA). Credit: SpaceX
NASAsay SpaceX The Crew-2 mission is scheduled to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon on Earth Day, April 22nd. The four include NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, and a first for the Commercial Crew Program, two international partners, Japanese Aviation Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet.
The Crew-2 astronauts will join the other members of Expedition 65, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos, for a six-month mission of low-Earth science experiments. . An important scientific focus on this expedition is the continuation of a series of tissue chips in space studies. Tissue chips are small models of human organs that contain multiple cell types that are very similar to those in the body.
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins will conduct operations for the Cardinal Heart tissue chip investigation in December 2020. Credit: NASA
These chips can make it possible to identify safe and effective medicines – medicines or vaccinations – much faster than the standard process. In addition, many changes that occur during space travel in the human body, such as the onset and progression of aging and disease on Earth, appear to occur much more rapidly in microgravity. Scientists use specialized tissue chips in space to model diseases that affect specific organs in the human body, but which can take months or years to develop on Earth.
Tissue chips are one aspect of tissue engineering, which uses a combination of cells, engineering and materials to repair, maintain, improve or replace biological tissues. Tissues made on earth require a kind of scaffold on which you can grow and can only reach a thickness of no more than 1 centimeter or just over a quarter of an inch. But in micro-gravity, rather than growing in a flat layer, cells can grow to three dimensions that mimic tissues in the body.
This image shows the test of the Roll-out Solar Array, or ROSA, from June 2017. The first solar panels with the new roll-out design travel to the space station during the Crew-2 launch. Credit: NASA
“We know that cells communicate with each other and that these communications are crucial to proper functioning,” said Liz Warren, senior program director at the ISS US National Laboratory. ‘We do not quite understand why, but in microgravity cell-to-cell communication works differently than in a cell culture flask on earth. Cells also collect or accumulate differently in microgravity. With these properties, cells can act more like in the body. Thus, microgravity seems to offer a unique opportunity for tissue engineering. ‘
A partnership between the ISS National Lab and the National Center for Health’s National Center for Advancement Translational Sciences (NCATS) has sent tissue chips to the space station to analyze the effects of microgravity on human health and translate it into improvements on Earth. Tests are to age tissue chips to examine the immune system, immune response in the lung, musculoskeletal disease, kidney function, muscle loss or sarcopenia, and more.
All the tissue chip examinations are assigned two flights, Warren explains, with a number of these experiments being launched for the second time during Expedition 65. ‘The first flight is a validation of the system. The second flight is usually intended to test a therapeutic or therapeutic agent. ‘
NASA and Boeing workers lift sunscreens in flight support equipment on April 2, 2021 in the space station processing facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 63-by-20-foot solar systems will be launched to the International Space Station later this year. Credit: NASA / KSC
Another important element of Crew-2’s mission is to update the station’s solar power system by installing the ISS Roll-out Solar Array (iROSA) – compact panels that roll open like a large yoga mat. The technology development dates back to 2009, benefiting from dozens of NASA grants for small business innovation research and later demonstrations on the ground. In 2017, the basic design on the space station was tested to determine its strength and durability. The crew of Expedition 65 is scheduled to prepare this summer with the first pair of six new arrays to complement the station’s existing rigid panels.
One research study aboard Crew Dragon with Crew-2, CHIME, studies possible causes for suppressed immune response in microgravity. Microgravity can cause changes in the human immune system, a potential source of concern for long-term travel. The CHIME investigation can help identify potential causes of dysfunction of the immune system and prevent ways to prevent or counteract it, helping astronauts as well as those with immune systems on earth.
Red Sea waters off the northwestern coast of Saudi Arabia are home to about 260 species of coral reef. This image was taken in November 2020 by crew members of the space station as part of the Crew Earth Observations (CEO) project. Credit: NASA
Crew members remain incredibly busy between maintaining and upgrading the station itself inside and out, daily activities to keep themselves healthy and a full range of scientific research – the station’s primary goal. The addition of more crew members aboard the microgravity lab increases the time available for scientific activities. The addition of the Crew-1 team, NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi in November 2020 to the crew of cosmonauts from Expedition 64 Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins has more than doubled. crew hours spent on scientific research and support activities.
Crew-2’s launch of Earth Day seems appropriate, as the space station contributes significantly to climate research. Expedition 65 astronauts join many others before them to take our planet through the Crew Earth Observations (CEO) project. Overall, crew members took more than 1.5 million images of the earth, which contributed to scientific research such as studies on artificial lighting at night, algae blooms and the breakdown of ice sheets in Antarctica.
When Crew-2 members return to Earth in the fall, they will have increased the image, as well as the total number of hours spent on scientific activities in space. With astronauts already selected for Crew-3 and Crew-4, the orbital laboratory is still going to achieve impressive results.