The ISS is truly a global asset.
It’s the result of 15 nations working together, sharing planning, technology, scientific advancements,
and the talents of its people.
We recently celebrated a decade of continuous human presence off-planet.
We’re learning how humans can exist in the extremely unforgiving environment of space,
where resupply from home is difficult and costly.
What we do here will improve life on Earth.
Over the past decade we’ve conducted over 600 experiments leading to advances in materials,
environmental science, medicine and our understanding of the human body, our planet and the universe.
Let me quickly grab the camera as I fly you through some of the research facilities that
we have on board and tell you more.
We’re presently in the Japanese Experiment Module also known as the JEM, where we have
this airlock where we could put experiments out into the vacuum of space replace to be
place on this external platform, out these beautiful windows out here.
The JEM also has several experiments racks.
We’ll talk about the first one here which is the Ryutai rack.
The Ryutai rack at the moment is being used for a Protein Crystal Growth experiment which
could lead to advancements in medicine, and was recently as for a fluids experiment which
investigated the Marangoni convection effects.
Improved understanding of this phenomena can have numerous applications including improved
silicon chip manufacturing, high quality materials, improved medical diagnostics and advancements
in micro and nanotechnology.
The Saibo or cell rack is presently conducting plant growth experiments.
In the unique micro-g environment of the space station we can better understand how gravity,
light and water affect how plants grow, which may help us grow crops more efficiently, especially
in the arid and drought affected regions of the world.
The JEM also has two of our many freezer facilities that we have onboard for biological and other
samples that must be kept frozen to preserve the science.
We’re now flying starboard across the forward edge of the space station toward the European
module known as Columbus.
This rack contains the Geoflow experiment which is helping us better understand the
Earth’s inner core which could help us predict natural disasters such as volcanoes and earthquakes
better.
In Columbus there’s also many facilities dedicated to study of biology and the human
body including two Human Research Facility racks which contain medical diagnostic equipment,
Biolab and the European physiology and cultivation modules.
Some of the experiments in these facilities will look at how to grow plants in harsh climates
and poor soil and explore methods of boosting the human body's immune system.
In the US lab there’s a number of EXPRESS racks that can be configured for a wide range
of experiments, more freezer facilities and a laboratory glovebox facility.
This is the Combustion Integrated Rack which is used to create a controlled combustion
environment and includes a pressure vessel and advanced diagnostics.
Some of the benefits of microgravity combustion research include fire safety and prevention
both on spacecraft and on the Earth, pollution control and increased fuel efficiency.
This is the Fluids Integrated Rack which is used to perform fluid physics experiments
in microgravity and contains a microscope facility in a sealed glovebox.
Some of our fluids experiments investigate how fluids behave near the critical point
which can lead to advancements in clean energy production and clean methods for eliminating
hazardous waste.
I’d like to show you inside the WORF, the Window Observational Research Facility, although
we can’t open it up right now because we have an experiment ongoing in there called
ISSAC, the International Space Station Agricultural Camera.
This camera takes frequent visual and infrared pictures of vegetated areas around the Earth.
This camera takes images frequently enough to evaluate rapidly changing conditions of
crops and areas which have a short growing season and provides valuable information that
farmers can use to optimize crop growth and increased food production.
Beyond its initial agricultural focus, scientists also plan and investigate how a quick response
Earth sensor such as ISSAC can be used to study a number of rapidly changing phenomena
around the planet, for measuring how glaciers are changing to the potential applications
in helping monitor conditions following natural disasters.
Technologies developed and demonstrated here on orbit will help alleviate some of the issues
humans face daily on the planet.
One example has to do with water purification.
As we flight aft through the space station to the Russian segment I’ll tell you all
about it.
One of the challenges of our technology on the ISS is that it needs to be sustainable.
Which means it needs to be easy to use and work for long periods of time without maintenance
or resupply.
Applying this sustainable engineering approach, a group of NASA engineers volunteered their
time and developed the water treatment system for communities in Rwanda where they also
need clean water with limited training and resupply.
That project went to a project in Kenya for providing household-scale water treatment
systems for 4 million people.
It is the largest water treatment project of its kind in the world.
I’m entering the MRM2 research facility in the Russian segment.
Here in the Russian MRM2 module, this experiment is investigating how electromagnetic fields
can affect the structure of crystal growth.
Here in the Russian service module there’s a number of scientific experiments.
In the LADA experiment investigators are evaluating different methods of growing wheat and vegetables
using hydroponics.
Here in the Russian segment there’s also a great deal of photo equipment that’s used
for Earth observation through these great Earth-facing windows.
We look at things like human impact, the effect of human impact on the environment, on the
atmosphere, on pollution control.
There’s also an experiment called Rusalka which evaluates the human impact on the Earth’s
atmosphere.
These are just a small subset of all the research that’s being conducted aboard the International
Space Station.
All the research is leading to things like new emergency sutureless wound closure and
disinfection, breakthroughs in the understanding and protection against bacteria such as Salmonella,
the treatment of osteoporosis and skin disorders, and the development of a NASA bioreactor which
is being used in laboratories around the world for research in things like cancer, regenerative
medicine, artificial organs, diabetes, AIDS, vaccine production and infectious disease.
Thanks to the cooperation of the 15 nations of our International Space Station partnership,
research is being conducted onboard the ISS that simply cannot be done on Earth and is
making a big positive impact on our world.
Thank you for letting me share the orbital perspective with you.
Goodbye for now.