Coupling of Anaerobic Waste Treatment to Produce Protein- and Lipid-Rich Bacterial Biomass
Publication date: Available online 20 July 2017 Source:Life Sciences in Space Research Author(s): Lisa M. Steinberg, Rachel E. Kronyak, Christopher H. House Future long-term manned space missions will require effective recycling of water and nutrients as part of a life support system. Biological waste treatment is less energy intensive than physicochemical treatment methods, yet anaerobic methanogenic waste treatment has been largely avoided due to slow treatment rates and safety issues concerning methane production. However, methane is generated during atmosphere regeneration on the ISS. Here we propose waste treatme...
Source: Life Sciences in Space Research - July 20, 2017 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Modifiers of Radiation Effects in the Eye
Publication date: Available online 18 July 2017 Source:Life Sciences in Space Research Author(s): Norman J. Kleiman, Fiona A. Stewart, Eric J. Hall World events, including the threat of radiological terrorism and the fear of nuclear accidents, have highlighted an urgent need to develop medical countermeasures to prevent or reduce radiation injury. Similarly, plans for manned spaceflight to a near-Earth asteroid or journey to Mars raise serious concerns about long-term effects of space radiation on human health and the availability of suitable therapeutic interventions. At the same time, the need to protect normal tiss...
Source: Life Sciences in Space Research - July 18, 2017 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Mars Science Laboratory Radiation Assessment Detector (MSL/RAD) Modeling Workshop Proceedings
Publication date: Available online 14 July 2017 Source:Life Sciences in Space Research Author(s): Donald M. Hassler, John W. Norbury, Günther Reitz (Source: Life Sciences in Space Research)
Source: Life Sciences in Space Research - July 15, 2017 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Comparison of methods for individualized astronaut organ dosimetry: morphometry-based phantom library versus body contour autoscaling of a reference phantom
Publication date: Available online 8 July 2017 Source:Life Sciences in Space Research Author(s): Michelle M. Sands, David Borrego, Matthew R. Maynard, Amir A. Bahadori, Wesley E. Bolch One of the hazards faced by space crew members in low-Earth orbit or in deep space is exposure to ionizing radiation. It has been shown previously that while differences in organ-specific and whole-body risk estimates due to body size variations are small for highly-penetrating galactic cosmic rays, large differences in these quantities can result from exposure to shorter-range trapped proton or solar particle event radiations. For th...
Source: Life Sciences in Space Research - July 9, 2017 Category: Biology Source Type: research
The charged particle radiation environment on Mars measured by MSL/RAD from November 15, 2015 to January 15, 2016
Publication date: Available online 8 July 2017 Source:Life Sciences in Space Research Author(s): Bent Ehresmann, Cary J. Zeitlin, Donald M. Hassler, Daniel Matthiä, Jingnan Guo, Robert F. Wimmer-Schweingruber, Jan K. Appel, David E. Brinza, Scot C.R. Rafkin, Stephan I. Böttcher, Sönke Burmeister, Henning Lohf, Cesar Martin, Eckart Böhm, Günther Reitz The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) on board the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover has been measuring the radiation environment in Gale crater on Mars since August, 2012. These first in-situ measurements provide an important data set for a...
Source: Life Sciences in Space Research - July 9, 2017 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Simulation of the GCR spectrum in the Mars Curiosity rover's RAD detector using MCNP6
Publication date: Available online 6 July 2017 Source:Life Sciences in Space Research Author(s): Hunter N. Ratliff, Michael B.R. Smith, Lawrence Heilbronn The paper presents results from MCNP6 simulations of galactic cosmic ray (GCR) propagation down through the Martian atmosphere to the surface and comparison with RAD measurements made there. This effort is part of a collaborative modeling workshop for space radiation hosted by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). All modeling teams were tasked with simulating the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) spectrum through the Martian atmosphere and the Radiation Assessment Detector ...
Source: Life Sciences in Space Research - July 7, 2017 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Whole High-Quality Light Environment for Humans and Plants
Publication date: Available online 5 July 2017 Source:Life Sciences in Space Research Author(s): Anton Sharakshane Plants sharing a single light environment on a spaceship with a human being and bearing a decorative function should look as natural and attractive as possible. And consequently they can be illuminated only with white light with a high color rendering index. Can lighting optimized for a human eye be effective and appropriate for plants? Spectrum-based effects have been compared under artificial lighting of plants by high-pressure sodium lamps and general-purpose white LEDs. It has been shown that for the su...
Source: Life Sciences in Space Research - July 5, 2017 Category: Biology Source Type: research
The radiation environment on the surface of Mars - Summary of model calculations and comparison to RAD data
Publication date: Available online 28 June 2017 Source:Life Sciences in Space Research Author(s): Daniel Matthiä, Donald M. Hassler, Wouter de Wet, Bent Ehresmann, Ana Firan, John Flores-McLaughlin, Jingnan Guo, Lawrence H. Heilbronn, Kerry Lee, Hunter Ratliff, Ryan R. Rios, Tony C. Slaba, Michael Smith, Nicholas N. Stoffle, Lawrence W. Townsend, Thomas Berger, Günther Reitz, Robert F. Wimmer-Schweingruber, Cary Zeitlin The radiation environment at the Martian surface is, apart from occasional solar energetic particle events, dominated by galactic cosmic radiation, secondary particles produced in the...
Source: Life Sciences in Space Research - June 28, 2017 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Effects of simulated microgravity on gene expression and biological phenotypes of a single generation Caenorhabditis elegans cultured on 2 different media
In this study, we investigated the effects of simulated microgravity on the gene expression and biological phenotype profiles of a single generation of C. elegans worms cultured on 2 different culture media. A desktop Random Positioning Machine (RPM) was used to simulate microgravity on the worms for approximately 52 to 54 hours. Gene expression profile was analysed using the Affymetrix GeneChip® C. elegans 1.0 ST Array. Only one gene (R01H2.2) was found to be downregulated in nematode growth medium (NGM)-cultured worms exposed to simulated microgravity. On the other hand, eight genes were differentially expressed for C. ...
Source: Life Sciences in Space Research - June 24, 2017 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Measurements of the neutral particle spectra on Mars by MSL/RAD from 2015-11-15 to 2016-01-15
Publication date: Available online 16 June 2017 Source:Life Sciences in Space Research Author(s): Jingnan Guo, Cary Zeitlin, Robert Wimmer-Schweingruber, Donald M. Hassler, Jan Köhler, Bent Ehresmann, Stephan Böttcher, Eckart Böhm, David E. Brinza The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD), onboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover Curiosity, has been measuring the energetic charged and neutral particles and the radiation dose rate on the surface of Mars since the landing of the rover in August 2012. In contrast to charged particles, neutral particles (neutrons and γ-rays) are measured indirectly: the ene...
Source: Life Sciences in Space Research - June 17, 2017 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Payload hardware and experimental protocol development to enable future testing of the effect of space microgravity on the resistance to gentamicin of uropathogenic Escherichia coli and its σs-deficient mutant
We report that under low-shear modeled microgravity (LSMMG), stationary-phase uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) become more resistant to gentamicin (Gm), and that this increase is dependent on the presence of σs (a transcription regulator encoded by the rpoS gene). UPEC causes urinary tract infections (UTIs), reported to afflict astronauts; Gm is a standard treatment, so these findings could impact astronaut health. Because LSMMG findings can differ from MG, we report preparations to examine UPEC's Gm sensitivity during spaceflight using the E. coli Anti-Microbial Satellite (EcAMSat) on a free-flying “nanosatelliteâ...
Source: Life Sciences in Space Research - May 10, 2017 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Low and high dose rate heavy ion radiation-induced intestinal and colonic tumorigenesis in APC1638N/+ mice
In conclusion, intestinal and colonic tumor frequency and size was similar irrespective of energetic heavy ion radiation dose rate suggesting that carcinogenic potential of energetic heavy ions is independent of dose rate. (Source: Life Sciences in Space Research)
Source: Life Sciences in Space Research - May 7, 2017 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Low and high dose rate heavy ion radiation-induced intestinal and colonic tumorigenesis in APC1838N/+ mice
In conclusion, intestinal and colonic tumor frequency and size was similar irrespective of energetic heavy ion radiation dose rate suggesting that carcinogenic potential of energetic heavy ions is independent of dose rate. (Source: Life Sciences in Space Research)
Source: Life Sciences in Space Research - April 30, 2017 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Cosmic-ray interaction data for designing biological experiments in space
Publication date: Available online 24 April 2017 Source:Life Sciences in Space Research Author(s): T. Straume, T.C. Slaba, S. Bhattacharya, L.A. Braby There is growing interest in flying biological experiments beyond low-Earth orbit (LEO) to measure biological responses potentially relevant to those expected during a human mission to Mars. Such experiments could be payloads onboard precursor missions, including unmanned private-public partnerships, as well as small low-cost spacecraft (satellites) designed specifically for "biosentinel" type missions. It is the purpose of this paper to provide physical cosmic-ray int...
Source: Life Sciences in Space Research - April 25, 2017 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Comparing HZETRN, SHIELD, FLUKA and GEANT Transport Codes
Publication date: Available online 20 April 2017 Source:Life Sciences in Space Research Author(s): John W. Norbury, Tony C. Slaba, Nikolai Sobolevsky, Brandon Reddell For the first time, the American (NASA) and Russian (ROSCOSMOS) space radiation transport codes, HZETRN and SHIELD respectively, are directly compared to each other. Calculations are presented for Galactic Cosmic Ray (GCR) minimum Hydrogen, Oxygen and Iron projectiles incident on a uniform Aluminum cylinder of varying thickness. Comparisons are made for the flux spectra of neutrons, light ions (Z≤ 2), heavy ions (Z> 2) and pions emitted from th...
Source: Life Sciences in Space Research - April 21, 2017 Category: Biology Source Type: research
