|
|
|
|
| Research on the International Space Station |
| The International Space Station represents a quantum leap in our capability to conduct research on orbit. It will serve as a laboratory for exploring basic questions in a variety of disciplines, and as a testbed and springboard for exploration. Research on the ISS will include commercial, science, and engineering research in the following areas: Advanced Human Support Technology: Researchers develop technologies, systems, and procedures to enable safe and efficient human exploration and development of space. Long Term Benefits: Reduce the cost of space travel while enhancing safety; develop small, low power monitoring and sensing technologies with applications in environmental monitoring in space and on Earth; and develop advanced waste processing and agricultural technologies with applications in space and on Earth. Biomedical Research and Countermeasures: Researchers seek to understand and control the effects of the space environment on space travelers (e.g. muscle atrophy, bone loss, fluid shifts, . . .). Long Term Benefits: Enhance the safety of space travel; develop methods to keep humans healthy in low-gravity environments; and advance new fields of research in the treatment of diseases. Fundamental Biology: Scientists study gravity's influence on the evolution, development, growth, and internal processes of plants and animals. Their results expand fundamental knowledge that will benefit medical, agricultural, and other industries. Long Term Benefits: Advance understanding of cell, tissue, and animal behavior;use of plants as sources of food and oxygen for exploration; improved plants for agricultural and forestry, Biotechnology: Microgravity allows researchers to grow three-dimensional tissues that have characteristics more similar to tissues in the body than has ever been previously available and to produce superior protein crystals for drug development. Long Term Benefits: Culture realistic tissue for use in research (cancerous tumors, organ pieces); and provide information to design a new class of drugs to target specific proteins and cure specific diseases, Fluid Physics: The behavior of fluids is profoundly influenced by gravity. Researchers use gravity as an experimental variable to explain and model fluid behavior in systems on Earth and in space. Long Term Benefits: Improved spacecraft systems designs for safety and efficiency; better understanding of soil behavior in earthquake conditions; and improved mathematical models for designing fluid handling systems for powerplants, refineries and innumerable other industrial applications Materials Science: Researchers use low gravity to advance our understanding of the relationships among the structure, processing and properties of materials. In low gravity, differences in weight of liquids used to form materials do not interfere with the ability to mix these materials opening the door to a whole new world of composite materials. Long Term Benefits: Advance understanding of processes for manufacturing semiconductors, metals, ceramics, polymers, and other materials; and determine fundamental physical properties of molten metal, semiconductors, and other materials with precision impossible on Earth. Combustion Science: The removal of gravity allows scientists to simplify the study of complex combustion (burning) processes. Since combustion is used to produce 85 percent of Earth's energy, even small improvements in efficiency and reduction of soot production (a major source of pollution on earth) will have large environmental and economic benefits. Long Term Benefits Enhance efficiency of combustion processes; enhance fire detection and safety on Earth and in Space; and improve control of combustion emissions and pollutants Fundamental Physics: Scientists use the low gravity and low temperature environment to slow down reactions allowing them to test fundamental theories of physics with degrees of accuracy that far exceed the capacity of Earthbound science. Long Term Benefits: Challenge and expand theories of how matter organizes as it changes state (important in understanding superconductivity); test fundamental theories in physics with precision beyond the capacity of Earth-bound science; and potential for improved magnetic materials Earth Science and Space Science: Space Station will be a unique platform with multiple exterior attach points from which to observe the Earth and the Universe. Long Term Benefits: Space Scientists will use the location above the atmosphere to collect and search for cosmic rays, cosmic dust, antimatter and "dark" matter. Earth Scientists can obtain global profiles of aerosols, ozone, water vapor, and oxides in order to determine their role in climatological processes and take advantage of the longevity of ISS to observe global changes over many years. |
