The International Space Station. Credit: NASA

Thursday, February 16, 2012

NASA TO DELIVER CENTRIFUGE TO INVESTIGATE PLANT AND ANIMAL CELLS


The following excerpt is from the NASA website: 

"HOUSTON -- NASA, Astrium Space Transportation and NanoRacks LLC are 
teaming up to expand the research capability of the International 
Space Station through delivery of a small commercial centrifuge 
facility that will conduct molecular and cellular investigations on 
plant and animal tissue. 

The centrifuge enhances NanoRacks' existing suite of lab equipment 
aboard the space station, which includes microscopes and a plate 
reader used to detect biological, chemical or physical activity in 
samples. 

Astrium Space Transportation handed over the research centrifuge to 
NanoRacks LL, during a ceremony Tuesday, Feb. 14 in Houston. Astrium 
North America adapted the centrifuge -- originally built by Kayser 
Italia for use on space shuttle missions -- for use in the station's 
NanoRacks Platform-3. The commercial research team funded the 
centrifuge. 

NASA will deliver the centrifuge as part of its responsibility to 
provide transportation for U.S. National Laboratory research and 
facilities to the space station. 

Under its partnership with Astrium, NanoRacks will add the centrifuge 
to the two racks of laboratory support equipment already on the 
station. The centrifuge is sized to fit the standard NanoRacks 
architecture, which can fly on any launch vehicle. 

"This is an important step in the expansion of National Lab facilities 
aboard the space station," said Marybeth Edeen, U.S. National 
Laboratory manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center. "Having companies 
develop research and facilities for the National Lab with their own 
funding demonstrates the beginnings of the commercial space 
marketplace that the National Lab was created to serve." 

The platform and centrifuge were produced in a short time at low cost. 
Both NanoRacks and Astrium expect announcements in the near future 
about more joint projects. 

NASA has manifested the NanoRacks-3 platform and the Astrium 
centrifuge on a Russian Progress cargo ship scheduled for launch in 
summer 2012 under its cargo agreements with the Russian Federal Space 
Agency." 

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