March in space science

What’s that you say?

In space everything is different, maybe even your hearing. The Acoustic Diagnostics investigation is charting astronauts’ hearing and measuring their response to sound over time during a mission. ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano was the first to run this Italian experiment, with Matthias adding data as another test subject. The experiment involves wearing headphones to listen to sounds and measure any changes. Matthias donned the headphones on 1 and 21 March and used the French Everywear app to record his measurements.

A guiding light

Throughout March and for many more months the Optical Fiber Dosimeter is testing the use of fibre optic cables to measure radiation. The Lumina experiment was set up by ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet and is a collaboration with particle experts CERN to test new techniques for measuring radiation on long-duration missions.

Easy does it

Throughout March, Matthias conducted his daily exercise sessions wearing the Easymotion electro muscle stimulation suit. This suit provides electrical pulses to stimulate the muscles in addition to the exercise to see if it increases workout efficiency and further counteracts muscle loss from floating in space. The usefulness of the electro-stimulation is measured using the Myoton device that records muscle tone. Although Matthias, like all astronauts in space must exercise up to two hours every day, he wore the suite with extra stimulation during a bike workout on 2 and 18 March, a resistive workout on 7 and 21 March and running on the treadmill on 20 March and 25 March.

The extra sensitive touch

Called a “touching event” the Touching Surfaces experiment is an easy experiment for the operator, in this case Matthias. Anti-microbial surfaces are being tested on the Space Station and Matthias simply touched a surface sample at regular moments, on 2 March, 10 March and 21 March and a last time on 25 March. Although bacteria are on every surface in our home and mostly harmless, in space they could develop differently, and astronauts have weakened immune systems so keeping bacteria and possible infection in check is more important.

Five panels made of copper, copper alloys and stainless steel are being tested for their antibacterial properties.

Electromagnetic

Matthias started the month working on metallurgy, preparing the Electromagnetic Levitator for storage by purging gases, and finishing the Metal Science Laboratory runs batch 3a. These facilities are melting and solidifying metals in microgravity to understand the finer aspects of creating new metal alloys that have the potential to be stronger and lighter.

Hands-free composing

NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn copied Wireless-Compose-2 science data for a downlink to Earth. This experiment is testing low-power but reliable and flexible Wi-Fi for the International Space Station, and is already used for some experiments to transmit data.

Body-mass index works in space too

Despite being weightless astronauts need to think of their weight, or body mass too. Matthias is taking part in Italy’s space agency ASI experiment Nutrition Monitoring for the International Space Station (NutrISS). Using the EveryWear astronaut app and a ‘bioelectric impedance’ device to measure his bodily conductivity, Matthias is tracking his fat to mass ratio. The science teams on Earth hope that a carefully tailored high-protein diet could limit the typical microgravity-driven loss of bone and muscle.

Foam on

In the background the Foam-C science runs continued to produce bubbles using pistons to shake liquids into a froth. Scientists are keen to investigate how the bubbles form and observe them in microgravity where they stay stable for longer – and can be analysed in depth.

Another foam experiment, called PASTA for PArticle STAbilised emulsions ran in the Fluid Science Laboratory with a focus on looking at additives that thrown into a mix to create more stable foams.

Gearing up for commercial science

Of course Matthias and Raja also went outside the Space Station on Matthias’s first spacewalk. Among the many tasks, Matthias also prepared the Bartolomeo platform that will host commercial hardware for science in low-Earth orbit.

Keeping recycled air fresh

On 28 March Matthias did the first air sampling in Columbus with the new technology ANITA-2. Matthias attached a sample bag to the machine and sealed it for a return to Earth and detailed measurements.

ANITA-2 (Analysing Interferometer for Ambient Air) is an instrument that constantly monitors air quality. Considerably smaller than its predecessor that flew to the International Space Station in 2007, and with improved software, the spectroscopy-based facility runs automatically in the background while astronauts get on with their work. The system is useful for all confined spaces such as in submarines.

Eye exam

On 30 March Tom did an eye exam using German space agency DLR’s Retinal Diagnostics study with help from NASA astronaut Kayla Baron and Mathias.

The Retinal Diagnostics project uses a commercially available ophthalmology lens approved for routine clinical use with mobile devices, to capture images of the human retina in space for detection. Developed by young researchers from ESA’s Spaceship EAC initiative, the project uses images of astronauts’ optical discs in space to train an artificially intelligent model. This model will be used to automatically detect changes in the optic nerve of astronauts, known as Space-Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome.

More grip

In the last week of March NASA astronaut Raja Chari and Kayla set up and ran sessions on the GRIP and GRASP experiments that are charting hand-eye coordination in space and how the human brain calculates depth and space perception.