The VFEU aboard STS-95 will feature two marine fish, called toadfish, as experiment subjects. Housed in the VFEU, the fish will be electronically monitored to determine the effect of gravitational changes on the inner-ear, or otolithic, system. The freely moving fish will provide physiological signals of the otolith nerves through an implanted, specially designed multipore electrode. Measurements of afferent and efferent responses will be made before, during, and after the flight.
The VFEU experiment is powered on when the fish packages (FP) are installed at approximately L-35 hours and will run continuously until the FPs are removed at approximately R+5 hours. Responses of both the primary afferents and central nervous system efferent fiber will be continuously collected by means of the Neural Data Acquisition System (NDAS). The collected data will be recorded on the data recorder, and pertinent experiment facility data will be downlinked for observation by VFEU ground personnel. |
