Cartilage Engineering, Blood Pressure Studies Kick Off Week Aboard Station

Cartilage Engineering, Blood Pressure Studies Kick Off Week Aboard Station
Cartilage engineering and cardiac research to advance human health on and off the Earth topped Monday’s research schedule aboard the International Space Station. The Expedition 74 crew members also continued spacesuit maintenance and cargo operations aboard the orbital outpost.
NASA flight engineer Jessica Meir was back working inside the Kibo laboratory module’s Life Science Glovebox processing cartilage cell samples to promote their growth in microgravity. NASA flight engineer Jack Hathaway assisted with the biotechnology experiment setting up a fluorescent microscope to view the space-engineered cartilage samples. Meir and Hathaway then packed a selection of samples for preservation in a science freezer and future analysis on Earth. Scientists will analyze the space-grown specimens to learn how to repair and regenerate injured cartilage on Earth and develop advanced fitness techniques for astronauts on a long-term spaceflight.
The duo also joined NASA flight engineer Chris Williams transferring cargo in and out of the Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft from Northrop Grumman. Williams and Meir later worked together collecting hardware from inside the Permanent Multipurpose Module and staging the gear for stowage inside BEAM, the Bigelow Expandable Access Module. Hathaway configured a temporary sleep station being installed in the Columbus laboratory module before three new crew members visit the space station next week.
ESA (European Space Agency) flight engineer Sophie Adenot worked throughout Monday on spacesuit maintenance inside the Quest airlock. Adenot spent a couple of hours cleaning cooling loops inside a pair of spacesuits that Williams and Meir wore during a robotics repair spacewalk on June 30. Hathaway joined Adenot at the end of the job and helped her clean up Quest, place protective covers on the spacesuits, and power down spacewalking systems.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, station commander and flight engineer respectively, partnered together on Monday and studied how weightlessness affects blood flow in the tiny vessels, or the micro-circulatory system. They first attached light-based sensors to their forehead, fingers, and toes. Next, they pointed a laser beam at their skin that interacted with the sensors providing signals measuring their blood flow and distribution. Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev also explored how living in space affects the respiratory system by wearing an acoustic sensor around their necks that recorded their rapid exhalation.
Flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev spent most of his shift conducting a photographic survey inside the space station’s Roscosmos segment. Fedyaev photo-documented the condition of stowage areas for future usage as well as inventoried items to secure cargo and other hardware.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.