With the successful launch and installation of Japan’s first manned space facility last summer, scientists are discovering increased opportunities to conduct experiments aboard the international space station. Research efforts already are underway on the new “Kibo” laboratory, and agencies around the globe — including the Defense Department — have planned for hundreds more studies in the coming years.
A crew aboard the space shuttle Discovery delivered the 32,000-pound Japanese experiment module to the station in June. At 36.7 feet long and 14.4 feet in diameter, the pressurized module is about the size of a tour bus and contains 23 racks, including 10 for experiments. Kibo, which means “hope” in Japanese, joins two other labs already in orbit — the U.S. module Destiny, and the European facility, Columbus.
“The laboratory on orbit provides a unique capability that we don’t have on the ground, which is microgravity,” says Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, who helped install Kibo. “We’re hoping that would provide new insights, new data points in various research areas,” he says.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in August began a series of fluid physics experiments, and it plans to run other investigations, ranging from crystal growth to microgravity effects on human, animal and plant cells. A space seed experiment will yield better understanding of gravity’s role in regulating plants’ life cycles and provide information for improving the productivity of space crops, says Hoshide.
Japan is sharing about half of Kibo’s facilities with the United States, says Yoshinori Yoshimura, director of the agency’s Washington office.
In April, NASA will commence a series of 93 experiments on orbit, including a materials processing trial in the new module. “We’re seeing a great increase in the number of experiments going on because of the additional facilities,” says Julie Robinson, NASA program scientist for the space station, which will host its first six-person crew beginning in May. That crew will dedicate more time to experiments than previous teams, which focused on assembling and maintaining the station.
Hopes are high for the expanded research facilities. “A key is to learn what we need on the space station so that we’re ready to leave Earth orbit to safely explore the solar system,” says Robinson.
The United States is planning to return a man to the moon and to send humans to Mars. Research into new materials and processes for repairing spacecraft and sustaining human health will ensure astronauts’ safety on those long journeys.
But other scientific efforts on ISS could yield benefits to earthbound humans. An experiment conducted on the space station five years ago showed that microgravity enabled the formation of microcapsules containing a drug. Back on Earth, those microcapsules were administered to rodents with prostate cancer. They were more effective than medications delivered traditionally.
As a result, that process was patented and clinical trials are now beginning.
In May, space shuttle Endeavour will deliver the final Kibo laboratory component to ISS. The exposed facility is an external “porch” 18.4 feet wide, 16.4 feet tall and 31.1 feet long that will attach to the exterior of the Japanese science module. It can accommodate up to 10 payloads of instruments intended for space exposure that will conduct Earth observation, astronomy and space environment measurements. Scientists plan to map stratospheric trace gases around the planet, monitor x-rays, measure particles, plasma and other space material in orbit and track environmental impacts on man-made materials and electronic devices.
The exposed facility has its own robotic arm, which means that experiments launched on unmanned cargo spacecraft, such as Japan’s H-II Transfer Vehicle, can be installed without requiring an astronaut to emplace it on a spacewalk, says Robinson.
One of the first U.S. experiments aimed for the Japanese external module is a Defense Department-sponsored test of remote sensing and space environment instruments, she says. Another experiment will investigate the durability of prototype materials in space.
NASA has a number of experimental and module racks yet to be launched into orbit. “We still have significant outfitting to make sure all the labs have all the hardware that’s been designed,” says Robinson.
The space shuttle will retire in 2010, which means that the Russian Soyuz spacecraft will be the sole means of human transportation to ISS until the shuttle replacement arrives in 2015. NASA is planning for commercial providers to handle cargo transportation to the space station. “Those two things together give us the ability to sustain a really dynamic research program on ISS,” says Robinson.