Crew-2 members were photographed during a training session at the SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, California. From left, Thomas Pesquet from ESA (European Space Agency), NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough and Akihiko Hoshide from Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Credit: SpaceX
GODMOTHERS SpaceX The Crew-2 mission is to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon on Earth Day, April 22. The four include NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur and, a premiere for the Commercial Crew Program, two international partners, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and astronaut ESA (European Space Agency) Thomas Pesquet.
Crew-2 astronauts will join the other members of Expedition 65, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov from Roscosmos, for a six-month mission conducting scientific experiments in low Earth orbit. An important scientific focus on this expedition is the continuation of a series of tissue studies in space. Tissue chips are small models of human organs that contain several types of cells that behave the same as in the body.
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins is conducting operations to investigate the Cardinal Heart tissue chip in December 2020. Credit: NASA
These chips can make it possible to identify safe and effective therapeutic products – drugs or vaccines – much faster than the standard process. In addition, many changes that occur in the human body during spaceflight resemble the onset and progression of aging and disease on Earth, but occur much faster in microgravity. Scientists use specialized tissue chips in space to model diseases that affect specific organs in the human body, but which could take months or years to develop on Earth.
Tissue chips are an aspect of tissue engineering that uses a combination of cells, engineering, and materials to restore, maintain, improve, or replace biological tissues. Tissues projected on the Earth require a kind of scaffold on which to grow and can only reach a thickness of no more than 1 centimeter or a little over a quarter of an inch. But in microgravity, rather than growing in a flat layer, cells can grow in three dimensions that closely mimic body tissues.
This image shows the testing 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 since the launch of Crew-2. Credit: NASA
“We know that cells communicate with each other and that this communication is essential for proper functioning,” says Liz Warren, senior program director at the ISS US National Laboratory. “We don’t fully understand why, but in microgravity, cell-to-cell communication works differently than it does in a cell culture balloon on Earth. Also, the cells aggregate or come together differently in microgravity. These characteristics allow the cells to behave more like inside the body. Thus, microgravity seems to provide a unique opportunity for tissue engineering. ”
A partnership between the ISS National Laboratory and the National Center for Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health sent tissue chips to the space station to analyze the effects of microgravity on human health and turn them into improvements on Earth. Investigations use tissue chips to study the aging of the immune system, the immune response of the lungs, musculoskeletal diseases, kidney function, muscle loss or sarcopenia, and more.
All tissue chip investigations receive two flights, explains Warren, a series of experiments launched for the second time during Expedition 65. “The first flight is a validation of the system. The second flight is generally intended to test a therapeutic or therapeutic treatment. ”
NASA and Boeing workers pick up solar arrays in flight support equipment on April 2, 2021, at the space station’s processing facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 63-by-20-foot solar networks will be launched into the International Space Station later this year. Credit: NASA / KSC
Another important element of the Crew-2 mission is to upgrade the station’s solar energy system by installing the ISS Roll-out Solar Array (iROSA) – compact panels that open like a huge yoga mat. The development of the technology dates back to 2009, benefiting from dozens of NASA awards for small business innovation research and subsequent ground demonstrations. In 2017, the basic design was tested on the space station to determine its strength and durability. The Expedition 65 crew is scheduled to begin preparations to complete the station’s existing rigid panels this summer with the first pair of six new matrices.
A research investigation flying aboard Crew Dragon with Crew-2, CHIME, is studying the possible causes of the suppressed immune response in microgravity. Microgravity can cause changes in the human immune system, a possible concern for long-term space travel. The CHIME investigation could help identify potential causes of immune system dysfunction and lead to ways to prevent or counteract it, helping space travel as well as those with compromised immune systems on Earth.
The waters of the Red Sea off the northwest coast of Saudi Arabia are home to about 260 species of coral reefs. This image was taken by the space station crew members in November 2020 as part of the Crew Earth Observations (CEO) project. Credit: NASA
Crew members remain incredibly busy between maintenance and modernization of the station inside and outside, daily activities to stay healthy and a complete list of scientific research – the main purpose of the station. Adding more crew members to the microgravity lab increases the time available for scientific activities. The addition in November 2020 of the Crew-1 team, NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, to the crew of the 64th Expedition of cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins doubled hours. crew spent in scientific research and support activities.
The launch of Earth Day 2 crew seems appropriate, given that the space station contributes significantly to climate research. The expedition of 65 astronauts joins many others before them in recording our planet through the Crew Earth Observations (CEO) project. Overall, crew members have taken more than 1.5 million images of the Earth, contributing to scientific research, such as studies of artificial lighting at night, algae blooms and the breaking of ice shelves in Antarctica.
When crew members-2 return to Earth in the fall, they will have an increase in the number of images, as well as the total number of hours spent in scientific activities in space. With the astronauts already chosen for Crew-3 and Crew-4, the orbiting laboratory continues to achieve impressive results.