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Young research team from Munich sends experiment to the International Space Station ISS

2023-03-11T07:11:11.153Z


Four young research teams are allowed to carry out their experiments on the International Space Station ISS. The start is already in a few days.


Four young research teams are allowed to carry out their experiments on the International Space Station ISS.

The start is already in a few days.

Munich/Cape Canaveral - The next "Falcon 9" rocket from SpaceX, which will take off from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida towards the ISS, will certainly be observed particularly closely by many people in and from Germany.

On board are the experiments of several student research teams that won the "High Flyer 2" competition of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in 2021.

The experiments are in small containers (10x10x20 centimeters in size) and are to be carried out on the International Space Station ISS.

The winning teams each received support of 20,000 euros and can witness the launch of the "Falcon 9" rocket on site.

The winners were a team from the Technical University of Munich, a team from the University of Stuttgart, a group from the Leibniz University in Hanover and a group from the University of Luxembourg.

The launch of the rocket that will bring the experiments to the space station is currently scheduled for March 15 at 02:30 (CET).

Research group from the Technical University of Munich sends experiment to the ISS

The experiments proposed by the teams as part of the competition could not be more different.

The team from the Technical University of Munich took part in the competition with the ADDONISS (Ageing and Degenerative Diseases of Neurons on the ISS) experiment and wants to conduct research on degenerative diseases of the brain, such as Alzheimer's, on board the ISS.

In the ADDONISS experiment from Munich, two brain cell cultures are to be examined under space conditions on board the ISS.

One of the cultures is spiked with a drug that causes disorders similar to Alzheimer's.

A microchip measures cell activity, and a camera microscope monitors cell growth in space.

An identical experiment is running in parallel on Earth, which should make it possible to compare the results afterwards.

Stem Cell Experiment on the International Space Station

The research group from Luxembourg is also dealing with the human body in their BRAINS experiment (Biological Research using Artivicial Intelligence for Neuroscience in Space).

The young researchers want to use the conditions in space to grow stem cells in an environment that resembles the "weightless" conditions in the womb.

Organoids are grown on Earth from human stem cells – small collections of cells of a certain type on which studies are carried out.

However, the size of the cell clusters is limited by gravity on Earth.

Less dense and larger organoids should be able to grow in the gravity of space, which should be returned to Earth after 30 days.

According to the plan, the samples will be analyzed there using image recognition based on artificial intelligence.

Space experiment to save astronauts time in the future

The FARGO experiment (Ferrofluid Application Research Goes Orbital) by a research group from the University of Stuttgart goes in a completely different direction.

Here the team wants to test so-called ferrofluids (liquids containing magnetic particles that react to external magnetic fields) in weightlessness.

A thermal switch, an electrical switch and a new type of attitude control system for small satellites are to be tested automatically as part of the experiment on board the ISS.

After 30 days, the experiment, which fits in a 10x10x20 centimeter box, is sent back to Earth, where the Stuttgart research group gets it back.

The experiment could become relevant for space travel in the future: All three applications largely do without mechanical parts and could be used in future space missions.

“Astronauts currently spend up to two hours a day doing maintenance work on board the spacecraft.

Sometimes additional supply flights are necessary to replace defective instruments.

This is time-consuming and costly.

In order to be able to carry out future missions to Mars, for example, spacecraft must be as maintenance-free as possible,” explains Manfred Ehrlichsmann, the idea generator and supervisor of the student project in Stuttgart.

ISS experiment: how does clover grow in weightlessness?

The fourth experiment to be launched as part of the "High Flyer 2" competition for the International Space Station comes from Hanover.

The research group sends the "Lucky Clover" project into space.

The aim is to investigate the change in the symbiotic relationship between clover and soil-dwelling bacteria in weightlessness.

Several clover seedlings will grow in zero gravity in the experimental container, and the development will be documented by a camera.

After returning to earth, the "space clover" will be intensively examined in the laboratory - the ten-strong team is concerned, among other things, with examining the effects of changed gravity on plant growth.

Future long-term missions in space will require astronauts to be able to grow plants as a source of food.

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Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-03-11

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