on ISS activities, research and accomplishments can be found at: http://www.nasa.
gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html. For more detailed information on
European participation and facts about the ISS please check: http://www.esa.int/
Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/International_Space_Station/About_the_Inter
national_Space_Station. The Erasmus Experiment Archive is ESA’s database for
European funded or co-funded experiments not only on ISS but also on other
microgravity platforms and in microgravity ground-based facilities: http://eea.
spaceflight.esa.int/portal.
Due to the fact that spaceflight-related projects are costly and research opportunities are scarce, great efforts are undertaken to coordinate scientific utilization of the
ISS in a most efficient way by coordination through international and bilateral
working groups consisting of the Space Station partners and other leading space
agencies like DLR (Germany), CNES (France) and ASI (Italy).
Since the ISS is the only available platform of its kind with regard to humans
as subjects for health-related and fundamental biological research, the long-term
microgravity, isolation and radiation environment, sophisticated research facilities
with significant power and data resources, highly efficient and extensive utilization
and exploitation of this unique research platform are essential for the next decade—
and are mandatory for preparing human exploratory missions to Moon and Mars and
beyond.
2.5 Conclusions
In the last decades, our knowledge in the field of gravitational biology has made
considerable progress thanks to an increasing number of microgravity platforms
providing almost stimulus-free environments of different quality and duration.
Microgravity research opportunities, however, are still rare, costly and require a
complex organization, preparation and in most cases highly specific experiment
hardware for habitation, cultivation, fixation and sample analyses—well adapted to
the respective platform. Various microgravity simulation methods complementing the real microgravity platforms have been invented for gravitational biology
research aiming to neutralize the effects of gravity on biological systems and alter
gravity conditions on ground. These methods are valuable tools for stand-alone
experiments, for proving new concepts and hypotheses, preparing microgravity
experiments, verifying microgravity results and testing hardware. However, thoroughly assessing all kinds of side effects and boundary conditions is required for
each biological sample. With the availability of space stations like the ISS and
future stations in low Earth orbit and beyond, the way has been paved for long-term
experimentation in microgravity yielding great opportunities for unraveling the
impact of gravity on life on Earth and preparing humans to explore the solar
system.
24
2 Methods for Gravitational Biology Research
gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html. For more detailed information on
European participation and facts about the ISS please check: http://www.esa.int/
Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/International_Space_Station/About_the_Inter
national_Space_Station. The Erasmus Experiment Archive is ESA’s database for
European funded or co-funded experiments not only on ISS but also on other
microgravity platforms and in microgravity ground-based facilities: http://eea.
spaceflight.esa.int/portal.
Due to the fact that spaceflight-related projects are costly and research opportunities are scarce, great efforts are undertaken to coordinate scientific utilization of the
ISS in a most efficient way by coordination through international and bilateral
working groups consisting of the Space Station partners and other leading space
agencies like DLR (Germany), CNES (France) and ASI (Italy).
Since the ISS is the only available platform of its kind with regard to humans
as subjects for health-related and fundamental biological research, the long-term
microgravity, isolation and radiation environment, sophisticated research facilities
with significant power and data resources, highly efficient and extensive utilization
and exploitation of this unique research platform are essential for the next decade—
and are mandatory for preparing human exploratory missions to Moon and Mars and
beyond.
2.5 Conclusions
In the last decades, our knowledge in the field of gravitational biology has made
considerable progress thanks to an increasing number of microgravity platforms
providing almost stimulus-free environments of different quality and duration.
Microgravity research opportunities, however, are still rare, costly and require a
complex organization, preparation and in most cases highly specific experiment
hardware for habitation, cultivation, fixation and sample analyses—well adapted to
the respective platform. Various microgravity simulation methods complementing the real microgravity platforms have been invented for gravitational biology
research aiming to neutralize the effects of gravity on biological systems and alter
gravity conditions on ground. These methods are valuable tools for stand-alone
experiments, for proving new concepts and hypotheses, preparing microgravity
experiments, verifying microgravity results and testing hardware. However, thoroughly assessing all kinds of side effects and boundary conditions is required for
each biological sample. With the availability of space stations like the ISS and
future stations in low Earth orbit and beyond, the way has been paved for long-term
experimentation in microgravity yielding great opportunities for unraveling the
impact of gravity on life on Earth and preparing humans to explore the solar
system.
24
2 Methods for Gravitational Biology Research