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SpaceX Falcon 9 Reusable, hovering in test flight at 1000m

SpaceX has at present made v successful rocket landings. As part of the 9th Commercial Resupply Services flight, the SpaceX team recovered a booster from a successful launch Monday — the second stage touched down, in accordance with the mission plan, at 12:53 AM EDT. CRS-9 is due at the ISS on Wednesday morning, with a several-ton payload of supplies and experiments in tow. Dragon is also bringing an international docking adapter which will make it easier for time to come manned missions to dock with the ISS. This includes futurity crewed Dragon flights, equally well every bit the Boeing Starliner. While CRS missions aren't manned (withal!), that doesn't mean today's mission didn't bring any life to the party. This time, in add-on to the crew supplies and science hardware, the CRS-nine flight volition bring microbes from Chernobyl to the International Space Station.

Close-up of SpaceX's Falcon 9 first stage, shortly after it touched down on July 18, 2016. Credit: @elonmusk

Shut-up of SpaceX's Falcon ix start stage, shortly later it touched downwardly on July 18, 2016. Credit: @elonmusk

Much of the science payload is equipment to be tested, including a machine for testing whether nosotros can sequence Deoxyribonucleic acid in microgravity. It'due south not that nosotros think it's impossible — DNA sequencing only requires electrical current, but the fashion we currently exercise sequencing also relies on Earth'due south familiar gravity, and so we need another method if nosotros're going to exercise sequencing in space. There'south as well an experiment chosen OsteoOmics that looks at which genes are transcribed in bone that's been kept in mag-lev weightlessness on Earth versus bone cells kept in freefall weightlessness, which is what occurs aboard Station.

NASA likewise sent up a phase-change heat exchanger that they're alpha testing. Information technology could make heating and cooling in space easier by providing thermal inertia. The examination build volition compare h2o and wax to see which works better.  Wax's thermal properties and overclocking potential has really been explored for use in smartphones and other engineering platforms, though we've however to see shipping systems that used the technique.

The fungus comes from locations within and around the Exclusion Zone at Chernobyl. Originally gathered by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab as part of a different experiment, these viii species accept been living in culture, and then they aren't themselves radioactive. Merely two of the species, Cladosporium sphaerospermum and C. cladosporioides, actually seem to accept a sense of taste for radiation. They abound toward it with a decisive preference.

Cladosporium cladosporioides, one of the fungi from Chernobyl. Image: Medmyco via Wikimedia Commons

Cladosporium cladosporioides, one of the fungi from Chernobyl that'south heading into infinite. Image: Medmyco via Wikimedia Commons

Clay Wang and colleagues hope the radiophilic microbes will provide some clue that will help humans survive in space. These special-snowflake fungi accept many tactics that they use to soak up and mitigate the dose of radiation they receive, including producing a lot of melanin, which can scavenge free radicals from the ambient fluid bathroom.

While the radiations surroundings aboard the ISS station is goose egg similar the radiocontamination surrounding the ruined nuclear institute, astronauts nevertheless feel elevated levels of radiation exposure while they're in space. Wang hopes that the elevated dose volition convince these fungi to start showing off their repertoire of radiations compensation tricks, explaining to Popular Science, "Microorganisms only make certain things when they demand to. Nosotros desire to come across if they actually brand new compounds in space."

"From an overall perspective, this is just function of the rich stream of research going on on the space station, from human being research, biological science, physical sciences investigations and things for exploration technology," said Julie Robinson, chief ISS program scientist, during a conference Saturday. Falcon ix is due back from the ISS in virtually a month, and we'll go on yous updated on its next endeavors.