Image Caption: An image of Crystal of Trypsin grown in microgravity during Expedition 4 on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

Laura Niles, NASA

To highlight the direction for life and physical sciences aboard the International Space Station, a panel of experts gathered today for the Destination Station: International Space Station Science Forum. This forum, the first in a new series of public discussions dedicated to research aboard the station, emphasized current and future microgravity research that will prepare astronauts for long-duration missions farther into the solar system than ever before and provide lasting benefits to life on Earth.

Not only does the space station provide a one-of-a-kind orbiting laboratory for researching many science disciplines in microgravity, but it also serves as a technology development testbed for deep space exploration and is a destination to grow a robust commercial market in low-Earth orbit. While the use of the space station continues to grow, science studied aboard is underway at an unprecedented pace. In addition to continued scientific opportunity, there also are key areas in which to focus on the most crucial research needs in space.

In 2011, the National Research Council published a report on how best to use the space station. This report, entitled Recapturing a Future for Space Exploration: Life and Physical Sciences Research for a New Era, established priorities and provided recommendations for life and physical sciences research in microgravity for the 2010-2020 decade.

We took a broad look at what research needed to be done in the physical sciences and the life sciences to underpin the future of space exploration, said Elizabeth Cantwell, director for mission development in the engineering directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, and co-chair of the National Research Councils decadal study. We recommended that because animal studies underpin so much of our knowledge and understanding of human health terrestrially, that animal studies be supported more strongly in the space station science program and that microbial studies be beefed up in the form of long-term ability to study microbes in space on the space station.

Among other recommendations for the space station, the report endorsed a clearly defined and prioritized integrated life and physical sciences research portfolio and associated objectives. This report detailed seven major disciplines for focus by station research, including plant and microbial biology and animal and human biology.

Life science research already conducted aboard the space station includes studies of protein crystals, pharmaceutical treatments and model organisms like plants and fish. Model organisms have characteristics that allow them to easily be maintained, reproduced and studied in a laboratory and have a genetic makeup that is relatively well-documented and well-understood by scientists. Upcoming research in the area of omics, the study of the entire complement of biomolecules like proteins or genes, and in rodent research will further enable humans to carry out long-term space exploration and support a greater understanding of how gravity shapes fundamental biological processes.

In response to the report, we identified new facilities that we needed, like new rodent and plant habitats, and starting this year, those facilities are going to keep coming online one-by-one, and each will be used on every flight over and over on the space station for the next 10 years, said Julie Robinson, Ph.D., chief program scientist for the International Space Station.

Protein crystals have been studied in microgravity throughout the space stations assembly, and investigations using protein crystals continue today. High quality crystals grown on the space station are used to determine protein structure. This helps researchers understand better protein the three-dimensional structure of proteins and may lead to designing new therapeutics for diseases. In fact, a previous study of protein crystals on the space station led to the discovery of a water molecule in a protein-inhibitor complex that now is being used to develop a treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

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Forum Highlights International Space Station Future Research