still remember the excitement I felt it a decade, when the first crew of the International Space Station arrived at the house brand. It seemed incredible to contemplate what was happening: we were about to begin to live permanently in space. We had started to leave that little egg we call Earth.
The last 10 years of research on the ISS have produced great things. Many are small and dark progress of which you never hear about, and who nevertheless are significant steps in their respective sciences.
For example, in vaccines against microbes in the development of new materials, or dietary measures to counteract the bone loss during space flight.
Photo: a protein crystals growing.
Here are a few blockbusters of the ISS, in the basic sciences:
- One of the most exciting results from the ISS is confirmation that the common pathogens change and become more virulent for a special flight. This has huge implications for extended human missions. It is being studied furiously. Growth
- protein crystals. The architecture of the crystals reduced-gravity becomes spongy, and it is possible to see in three dimensions without the effects of "flattening" the structure, which happens in gravity. Understanding the structure of any protein is essential for example when one wants to study a disease such as Chagas Mal. Knowing how proteins of the trypanosome that causes Chagas disease is a weapon to be able to find a compound that stops KO ideal.
- Air quality is a major concern of any operation space. Therefore, studies with the instrument ANITA (Ambient Air Analyzer Interferometer) are calibrated to sniff 32 gaseous pollutants (such as ammonia, CO2, formaldehyde) in concentrations of only parts per million in the atmosphere of the ISS. The analyzer is nice because it allows immediate analysis, real-time
- Advanced Studies is ASTROCULTURE have taught us that it is possible to grow plants using only part of the visible electromagnetic spectrum, and thus save energy without sacrificing the welfare of a seedling . We have learned to teach a root to find a way to grow if gravity, and have learned to coordinate the moisture and nutrients with great accuracy. Seeds were also obtained "space."
- We have studied the embryos in microgravity (Fish eggs, insects, birds). And learned that the absence of gravity can affect embryo development, one way or another. For example, inner ear bones of quail embryos are larger than those of terrestrial quail. On the other hand, embryos produced less collagen space in their cells than the ground. The collagen is what forms the matrix between cells and cell. It is like the scaffolding which supports all our cells.
The point is that the International Space Station, which happily work for another 10 years, leaving the transportation logistics side, is a laboratory that has its good things. is not the perfect laboratory: it moves and vibrates, is noisy, hot. But our lab space.