Space Station Crew Starts Week With Space Agriculture, Human Cells and Spacesuits – SciTechDaily

By NASAJanuary 11, 2022

Pictured from left, are the Soyuz MS-19 crew ship and the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module with the Prichal docking module attached. Credit: NASA

TheExpedition 66crew kicked off Monday promoting space agriculture and observing how the human cell adapts to weightlessness. Two cosmonauts are also gearing up for the first spacewalk of 2022 set to begin next week at theInternational Space Station.

Growing plants in space is critical to keeping crews healthy as NASA and its international partners plan human missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Just like humans living in space, microgravity affects plants and scientists want to learn how to successfully grow crops in space to sustain crews with less support from Earth.

Today, NASA Flight EngineerMark Vande Heiharvested the shoots and roots of Arabidopsis plants grown on petri plates inside theVeggiefacility. Fellow NASA Flight EngineerRaja Charicollected the harvested samples and stowed them in a science freezer for later analysis. TheAPEX-07, or Advanced Plant Experiment-07, study is looking at how microgravity affects genetic expression in plants.

ESA (European Space Agency) astronautMatthias Maurerworked throughout Monday on theCytoskeletonspace biology study. That study takes place in theKibo laboratory moduleand uses theLife Science Gloveboxto explore how the internal machinery of the human cell is impacted by long-term space missions.

NASA Flight EngineerKayla Barronalso worked in Kibo and set up the newMochiielectron-scanning microscope to identify trace particles aboard the station. NASA astronautThomas Marshburnfed mice and cleaned their habitats throughout Monday before inspecting and cleaning hatch seals in the stations U.S. segment.

CommanderAnton Shkaplerovand Flight EngineerPyotr Dubrovpartnered together during the morning on a pair of Russian studies looking at how space affects heart activity and arm muscles. The duo later spent the rest of the day setting up Russian Orlan spacesuits for a spacewalk set to begin on Jan. 19. The two cosmonauts will spend about seven hours in the vacuum of space outfitting the stations newest modules,NaukaandPrichal.

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Space Station Crew Starts Week With Space Agriculture, Human Cells and Spacesuits - SciTechDaily