KENNEDY
SPACE CENTER, Fla., July 22,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Space Station
(ISS) National Laboratory will host a science webinar to discuss
upcoming investigations launching on Northrop Grumman's
21st Commercial Resupply Services mission to the
orbiting outpost. This webinar will showcase some of the innovative
research that will be conducted in the unique environment of the
space station. The webinar is slated to take place Friday, July 26 at 1 p.m.
EDT.
Investigators leading projects sponsored by NASA and
the ISS National Lab, including some funded by the U.S.
National Science Foundation (NSF), will participate in the webinar.
Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft is slated to take flight from
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in early August.
Davide Marotta, ISS National Lab
program director for in-space biomanufacturing, and Meghan Everett, NASA's deputy chief scientist
for the International Space Station Program, will join the webinar
with the following expected speakers:
- Susan Margulies, assistant
director of the NSF Directorate for Engineering: Margulies leads
the NSF Directorate for Engineering, which has an annual budget of
nearly $800 million, supporting
research to generate new knowledge and problem-driven science to
identify new solutions to societal challenges. NSF has collaborated
with the ISS National Lab since 2015 to award more than 70 projects
that advance fundamental knowledge in space for the benefit of life
on Earth, and Margulies will expand on the importance of this
partnership.
- Alicia Boymelgreen, assistant
professor at Florida International
University: Boymelgreen will discuss an NSF-funded
investigation leveraging microgravity to improve models of active
colloids, which are groups of suspended particles that move within
a liquid or gel medium. Results could lead to improvements in a
broad range of technologies—from biosensing and drug delivery to
water desalination and photothermal therapies for cancer
treatment.
- Anthony Atala, director of Wake
Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine: Atala will highlight an
investigation studying the behavior of engineered liver tissue
constructs containing blood vessels in microgravity. Results could
advance space-based tissue engineering and eventually lead to the
in-space production of tissues for organ transplants on Earth. This
project originally stemmed from NASA's Vascular Tissue Challenge
before evolving into a spaceflight investigation.
- Clive Svendsen, executive
director of the Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute
at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center: Svendsen will discuss a project
aiming to establish methods that support the in-space manufacturing
of stem cells that can be matured into a wide variety of tissues to
improve regenerative medicine on Earth.
- Michele Hooks, education project
manager for NASA's Office of STEM Engagement: Hooks will present a
STEMonstration on the Screaming Balloon activity launching on this
mission. STEMonstrations are three- to five-minute educational
video shorts developed through NASA's Office of STEM Engagement
Next Gen STEM Project. For this STEMonstration, astronauts onboard
the space station will inflate two balloons, one with a penny
inside and one with a hex nut inside, and will demonstrate the
differences in centripetal force in microgravity.
- Pubudu Handakumbura, team leader in biology at Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory: Handakumbura will discuss a
NASA-sponsored investigation examining the carbon dioxide capture
mechanisms of two types of grasses, Brachypodium distachyon
and Setaria viridis. Results could show how photosynthesis
and overall plant metabolism change in space. This knowledge could
support the development of ways to use carbon-metabolizing plants
in bioregenerative life-support systems on future missions.
The webinar will be available on Zoom for media. Members of
the media who would like to participate are required to register
for Zoom access no later than one hour in advance.
The public can participate by submitting their question by using
#ISSNationalLab on social media before the webinar to
ask questions. A recording will be available on the ISS National
Lab YouTube channel shortly afterward. Additional
information about ISS National Lab-sponsored projects on this
mission will be made available to the media and public in the
coming days.
Join us to learn more about the exciting investigations heading
to the space station and how they could advance science and benefit
humanity.
To download a high-resolution image for this
release, click here.
About the International Space Station (ISS) National
Laboratory:
The International Space Station (ISS) is a
one-of-a-kind laboratory that enables research and technology
development not possible on Earth. As a public service enterprise,
the ISS National Laboratory® allows researchers to
leverage this multiuser facility to improve quality of life on
Earth, mature space-based business models, advance science literacy
in the future workforce, and expand a sustainable and scalable
market in low Earth orbit. Through this orbiting national
laboratory, research resources on the ISS are available to support
non-NASA science, technology, and education initiatives from U.S.
government agencies, academic institutions, and the private sector.
The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space™
(CASIS™) manages the ISS National Lab, under Cooperative
Agreement with NASA, facilitating access to its permanent
microgravity research environment, a powerful vantage point in low
Earth orbit, and the extreme and varied conditions of space. To
learn more about the ISS National Lab, visit our
website.
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, CASIS accepts corporate
and individual donations to help advance science in space for the
benefit of humanity. For more information, visit our donations
page.
Media Contact:
|
Patrick
O'Neill
|
|
904-806-0035
|
|
PONeill@ISSNationalLab.org
|
International Space
Station (ISS) National Laboratory
|
Managed by the Center for the
Advancement of Science in Space, Inc. (CASIS)
|
6905 N. Wickham Rd.,
Suite 500, Melbourne, FL 32940 • 321.253.5101 •
www.ISSNationalLab.org
|
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SOURCE International Space Station National Lab