After making a flyby of the moon, a small craft will begin its deep-space biology experiment.
There are 10 ride-along cubesats that lifted off on the Artemis 1 mission. There are health risks associated with long-duration crewed missions to deep space.
The cubesat had a bit of a wobble early on, with the first data from BioSentinel showing it was tumbling.
There are amazing views of NASA's moon rocket debut.
The issue was fixed after commands were sent via the Deep Space Network.
The cubesat flew by the moon at a speed of as close as 250 miles per hour.
The goal of the project is to learn how the radiation environment of deep space affects and damages genetic material. Researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center in California want to use the data to find potential solutions that could aid future human explorers to the moon.
The International Space Station has a harsher radiation environment than here on Earth. They are also protected by the Earth's magnetosphere from the radiation that can damage their genes.
The human body repairs its genetic material in a similar way to how yeast does.
There were two strains that were used for the ride. One is a yeast found in nature and the other is a yeast that has trouble repairing its genes. There are health risks associated with travel in deep space.
According to NASA, BioSentinel is pointing its solar panels at the sun to get ready for its experiment, which is expected to begin next month.
The BioSentinel project manager at NASA Ames said they were excited to see how the yeast were doing once the experiment began.
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