There will be a lot of science gear going up to the International Space Station this week.

The uncrewed flight will begin on Friday when a Falcon 9 rocket launches a Dragon capsule. There is a lot of cargo and supplies in the dragon.

Immune system aging and recovery, global dust composition and its effect on the climate, and more are some of the investigations headed to the International Space Station.

The International Space Station is being built.

In a call with reporters on Thursday, NASA officials said they were excited about the number of experiments headed to the orbital laboratory and the increased ability of astronauts to conduct them.

After the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet, the agency was dependent on Russian Soyuz to carry its astronauts to and from the International Space Station. A maximum of two spaceflyers can be carried into the U.S. section of the station with the help of the three person Soyuz.

Thanks to the success of the missions for NASA, more people can get to and from the U.S. section. The crewed version of Dragon is capable of carrying four astronauts at a time, and has already been used on four missions to the International Space Station.

Increased crew numbers have allowed NASA to conduct more research.

NASA's chief scientist said during Thursday's briefing that they've been "flush with crew time" since they've had four crew members. The researcher sponsors have responded and utilized all the time that is available.

Next week, some of the experiments will go to space. You can find more about them and other research flying on NASA's website.

On Jan. 14, 2022, strong seasonal winds carried dust from northwest Africa over the Canary Islands, causing visibility to drop and air quality to decline. EMIT will measure the mineral composition of dust in Earth's arid regions, creating a map that could improve understanding of how dust affects people and communities.

On Jan. 14, 2022, strong seasonal winds carried dust from northwest Africa over the Canary Islands, causing visibility to drop and air quality to decline. EMIT will measure the mineral composition of dust in Earth's arid regions, creating a map that could improve understanding of how dust affects people and communities. (Image credit: NASA)

EMIT

The next year, the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation, known as EMIT, will measure the mineral composition of dust in the driest landscapes. Robert Green explained the planet's "mineral dust cycle" during Thursday's briefing.

Dust from the desert travels thousands of miles. The composition of the minerals in the dust is important to understanding how the climate system works. Depending on the minerals present, atmospheric dust can reflect and absorb sunlight in a variety of ways. Dust that settles in the ocean or on land can be rich in minerals.

According to Green, there are only 5000 mineral samples from the global dust cycle in scientists' hands. The number will be left in the dust. The EMIT module is the mission's largest component. The External Logistics Module 1 is where the EMIT will spend the next year analyzing over a billion dust samples from around the world. The data will be used to update global systems models for things like weather prediction.

Climate change can cause and effect.

Flight hardware for the Biopolymer Research for In-Situ Capabilities, an investigation of how microgravity affects the process of creating a concrete alternative made with an organic material and on-site materials such as lunar or Martian dust. Each module makes two bricks, for a total of six bricks made in space.

Flight hardware for the Biopolymer Research for In-Situ Capabilities, an investigation of how microgravity affects the process of creating a concrete alternative made with an organic material and on-site materials such as lunar or Martian dust. Each module makes two bricks, for a total of six bricks made in space. (Image credit: James Wall)

NASA wants to establish a permanent human presence on the moon. There is no answer to how to best build sustainable habitats from local resources. Steel and concrete are heavy and expensive to launch to the moon.

The students are studying how microgravity affects the formation of a concrete alternative that mixes an organic compound with water and "in situ" resources, like lunar regolith or Martian dust. The compounds used in BPCs allow the mixture to dry with less strength than Portland cement.

Six bricks are going to be created aboard the space station using a compound called bovine albumin. During the drying process, dirt particles are connected byBSA. To determine the influence of microgravity on the drying process and the strength of bricks, researchers want to compare bricks made on Earth and in space.

This image shows skin samples cultured in the Suture in Space hardware prior to flight. This ESA investigation examines the behavior of sutures and wound healing in microgravity.

This image shows skin samples cultured in the Suture in Space hardware prior to flight. This ESA investigation examines the behavior of sutures and wound healing in microgravity. (Image credit: University of Florence)

Space stitches

Skin samples will be sent to the space station by the European Space Agency and the University of Florence. These are larger pieces in a test tube. A set of tissue chips, containers designed to store human cells for study in microgravity, will hold samples of human skin and blood vessels, which have been wounded and then sutured to study the mechanical forces of stitches on the healing process in microgravity.

Someone will be injured as the pace of human spaceflight increases. Monica Monici is the principal investigator of the Suture in Space study.

Experiments on cell cultures and animal models show that wound closing is delayed in microgravity. The need for trauma care and surgeries increases due to the long time from space to Earth.

Pre-flight preparation of tissue chips for the Immunosenescence investigation, which studies the effects of microgravity on immune function to determine the mechanisms behind immune system aging.

Pre-flight preparation of tissue chips for the Immunosenescence investigation, which studies the effects of microgravity on immune function to determine the mechanisms behind immune system aging. (Image credit: Sonja Schrepfer, University of California San Francisco)

Immune system aging

Aging of immune cells in microgravity can affect their ability to repair tissues. The investigation uses tissue chips to study the effects of aging.

"You're only as old as you feel?" is a phrase that youTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkia is a phrase that youTrademarkia is a phrase that youTrademarkia is a phrase that youTrademarkia is a phrase that youTrademarkia is a phrase that youTrademarkia is a phrase that you According to the principal investigator for the project, you are just as old as your immune system. A professor of surgery at the University of California San Francisco said during Thursday's call that an aged immune system is not correlated with the age of the patient.

The cells will be observed in flight and on the ground. The experiment that flew on a cargo mission in December did not plan for a return. The immune tissue's reaction after flight will be observed by scientists.

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