>> Pat Ryan: The Automated Transfer Vehicle has just arrived at the International Space Station.
It's going to provide a lot of fresh fruit and gifts from home for the crew members,
new clothes, personal supplies but there's also a good bit of science material that is going
to boost the station's research capability and that's been delivered to.
This morning we're going to learn more about the science that's coming out of the ATV
with Camille Alleyne who is International Space Station Assistant Program Scientist.
Camille, what's on board the ATV-3?
Is this an especially large delivery?
>> Camille Alleyne: It's not an especially large delivery
but there are quite a few sampled-research samples that will be launched to support some
of the investigations that are going on during this increment.
>> Pat Ryan: There are material there for a couple of experiments that have nano
in the title which sounds kind of cool.
Tell me about what those are.
>> Camille Alleyne: Well, the first one is called NanoStep and that's all
about protein crystal growth and what they've launched,
protein crystals specifically called lysozymes which are large amounts farmed
in egg white or in our tears or our saliva.
So they've launched those protein crystals and what investigators are trying
to study is the mechanisms for which they grow perfectly under microgravity.
And this is a Japanese led investigation.
And so protein crystal growth, sometimes when we have launched them and we've launched
about 400 of these protein crystals.
Some have grown perfectly and the perfection of the crystal is reflected in its size
and its purity and so they've seen some growing perfectly and some haven't grown at all.
So researchers are trying to fundamentally understand what is the precise mechanism
for the growth of the perfection in the protein crystals.
>> Pat Ryan: Is there value in getting perfect crystals or does that teach us something else?
>> Camille Alleyne: Yes, absolutely.
It is critical -- protein crystal growth is critical in the development
of protein structures and that's fundamental to our understanding of life at the molecular level
and also the development of molecular biotechnology.
>> Pat Ryan: That's nanosteps.
There's also --
>> Camille Alleyne: That's nanosteps.
>> Pat Ryan: I counted 12 different investigations under the NanoRacks.
What's new in the NanoRacks section here?
>> Camille Alleyne: So NanoRacks is a multipurpose research facility that's onboard
the space station and it's commercially developed and it's managed
under the [inaudible] of the US National Laboratory.
And so they investigate the samples that are going up.
It's actually seven investigations that will be housed in the NanoRacks facility
and these are sometimes investigations that are led by researchers
and sometimes they are student developed experiments.
So these seven are actually student developed experiments and they involve one,
looking at the effects of microgravity on concrete mixing and the students will be looking
at mixing two types of concrete mixtures.
One by stirring and one by vibrations and they would compare those mixtures
to concrete mixtures on the ground.
The second is looking at the effect of microgravity
on an antibiotic resistance e. coli bacteria and then there's one that's looking
at a remote controlled robotics, its mechanism and its mechanical devices.
Some very interesting student developed experiments and [inaudible].
>> Pat Ryan: Students of which age?
>> Camille Alleyne: High school.
>> Pat Ryan: High school.
>> Camille Alleyne: And from California high schools.
>> Pat Ryan: My goodness.
Now there's hardware for something else called energy
and that's one I haven't heard very much about.
What's that?
>> Camille Alleyne: Energy's an [inaudible] led investigation
and what the researchers are looking at is the metabolic rate of the crew members
and the total energy balance after long duration space flight.
What they found is that crew members come back with a negative energy balance meaning
that their caloric intake is insufficient for the amount of energy
that they need to live and work in space.
So ultimately researchers are trying to derive an equation for the amount
of energy that's required during long duration space flight.
>> Pat Ryan: They not eating enough or do they not eat enough of the right things?
>> Camille Alleyne: They don't eat enough for the amount of energy
and so it's predicting how much work needs to be done and how much calories need
to be intake in order to complete that work.
There's so much we're discovering about how the human body adapts
to microgravity and long duration space flight.
And so researchers are becoming more and more interested in using nutrition
as a counter measure for those adverse effects that we see.
And so one of the effects that we see
when there's a negative energy balance is a significant loss in body mass.
There's also a loss in mental and physical power, muscle atrophy, bone density loss
and cardiovascular deconditioning.
So it's significant.
>> Pat Ryan: There's -- there are a lot of different experiments that have to do
with finding out how the body's going to be impacted.
>> Camille Alleyne: Yes.
>> Pat Ryan: One is relatively new, it's called sprint
and you've got some new supplies going up for the sprint experiment.
>> Camille Alleyne: Yes, we have some resupply kits going up for the sprint experiment
and I say sprint is all about exercise.
And so it involves high intensity, low volume exercise regimen.
Currently astronauts and crew members are required to do about two
and a half hours a day of exercise.
So some of the crew members who are going to be involved
in this investigation would not exercise as frequently but when they do exercise,
it's going to be with greater intensity.
And so the exercise regime includes integrated resistance using a device
on board called an irade [phonetic] which is an advanced resistance exercise device.
And they will also get their cardiovascular conditioning from the treadmill,
the kober [phonetic], the [inaudible] treadmill.
>> Pat Ryan: And they have other exercise equipment on too.
>> Camille Alleyne: They do.
>> Pat Ryan: But the sprint is different because it's a harder workout.
>> Camille Alleyne: Exactly, more intense workout
and so like the nutrition researchers are hoping that the exercise could be used
as a counter measure for some of -- decreasing some of the losses they see in the muscle
and the bone and the cardiovascular deconditioning.
>> Pat Ryan: Edwardo Amaldy [phonetic] had some new hardware and supplies
for another variation of the ALTEA experiment.
>> Camille Alleyne: Yes.
>> Pat Ryan: Anomalous Long Term Effects in Astronauts,
tell me about what's the new one's called.
>> Camille Alleyne: It's called ALTEA shield and it's led by the Italian space agency
and that's a technology investigation that's going
to monitor the cosmic radiation inside the US [inaudible] laboratory.
Ultimately researchers are trying to see that -- study the interactions between cosmic rays
and brain functions and we know that radiation, space radiation is one of the greatest risks
to astronauts flying beyond -- traveling beyond [inaudible] orbit.
So it's important to study what that environment is like so ALTEA shield is another installment
in the ALTEA investigations that's trying to characterize the cosmic radiation environment
within the vehicle and ultimately, we'll be able to develop technologies
that could protect the astronauts from that kind of space radiation.
>> Pat Ryan: Now I'm really interested in another piece of research
that was delivered here that isn't going to survive.
It doesn't have anything to do with the space station.
>> Camille Alleyne: [Laughter] Yes.
>> Pat Ryan: It's called REBER and it will support ATV while it goes
to its own destruction.
Tell --
>> Camille Alleyne: Right.
So we're taking advantage of the fact that the ATV is a non-reusable vehicle and will break
up supposedly in the earth at the earth's atmosphere.
So REBER is a device, it stands for reentry break up recorder and what it does is
as the ATV's orbit is decaying and break up, reentry starts about 120 kilometers.
The host which will call the ATV starts breaking up, the REBER is deployed
and it starts recording some of that process, that breakup process.
So it records the temperature.
It records the acceleration, the rotational rates and positions of some of the debris
that comes from the breakup phenomenon.
And researchers are ultimately trying to make that reentry safer.
Predict because we know some pieces survive so being able to predict the trajectory
and ultimately make the population safe is the objective.
>> Pat Ryan: The REBER doesn't survive, does it?
>> Camille Alleyne: No, it actually -- it sends the information back to the ground team but yes,
ultimately it's supposed to self destruct.
>> Pat Ryan: We've often talked about how the research that's done
on the station can impact people like you and me who aren't in space at all.
This week's Program Scientist, Dr. Julie Robinson, your boss --
>> Camille Alleyne: My boss.
>> Pat Ryan: Announced a new website to help spread word about what's being done.
Fill me in on this new website.
It's called Benefits for Humanity.
>> Camille Alleyne: Benefits for Humanity is an extraordinary accomplishment for us.
We just launched this website that features stories that are significant in the scientific,
technological and educational accomplishments that have come from research
on the space station to date that --
it has an impact on life at earth and so I'll give you a little bit
of context for the earth benefits.
When we talk about the value of the International Space Station,
we talk about it in the following ways.
We talk about it in a way -- we say a 3 by 3 messaging so we talk
about the engineering achievements --
>>Pat Ryan: Right.
>> Camille Alleyne: The benefits we have gotten from the engineering achievement
of building this extraordinary space craft.
We talk about the international achievement.
The fact that we have worked across the globe, five space agencies working together to develop,
design, assemble the International Space Station.
And finally the research accomplishment which is now fully being realized and those --
that's the benefit we get from the knowledge we gain by doing research on the space station.
And we've seen three benefits in that area.
Its scientific discovery which is the fundamental knowledge that we get from research,
things that could rewrite textbooks.
And then there are those things that would help us further explore space
and then there are the earth benefits.
And so in that context we launched this website to feature the earth benefits.
And we focused on three areas, human health, education,
and earth observation and disaster response.
And I can give an example in one --
>> Pat Ryan: Give me one.
>> Camille Alleyne: One example.
There's so many phenomenal examples
but the first one I'll talk about is neuroarm [phonetic].
It's in the area of human health and neuroarm came this family of space robots.
You know we had the Canada [inaudible] shuttle.
Now we have the Canada [inaudible] 2 [inaudible] on the space station
and so what biomedical engineers in Canada and physicians had been trying
to work towards was coming up with a technology that would assist in neurosurgery.
Right now when they -- when a patient is doing an MRI and there needs to be an operation done
in a specific place that's very sensitive, the best human hands can't accomplish that task.
And so they came up using the space robotic technology, applied that to developing a robot
that now assists in neurosurgery and dozens of people since 2008 have been treated successfully
with this kind of surgery and technology.
>> Pat Ryan: That's great and there -- I don't want to spoil the surprise for everybody.
We'll let them read about some of the other things.
>> Camille Alleyne: Right.
Absolutely.
>> Pat Ryan: And the website, the Benefits for Humanity website, great.
>> Camille Alleyne: www.nasa.gov/ISS/science.
You go to research and technology, click benefits and you'll see the stories.
>> Pat Ryan: And good.
We put it up on the screens so people can see it too.
>> Camille Alleyne: Fantastic.
>> Pat Ryan: You know thanks very much.
>> Camille Alleyne: Thank you so much for having me.
>> Pat Ryan: I enjoyed the discussion.
Camilla Alleyne is Assistant Program Scientist at the International Space Station program.