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>> As we send people on long-term missions farther
and farther into space, on missions beyond low Earth orbit
and the moon, we need to know more
about the physiological risks in order
to solve the considerable obstacles
to human space exploration.
Physiological problems such as weightlessness,
immune system changes or bone loss during long-duration human
exploration can be better understood
in the microgravity environment aboard the ISS.
These are studied and explored, together with the crew
and the biological model systems.
Space biologists are also studying the role
of earth's organisms, animals, plants and microbes
in long-term life support systems and bio habitats
in space or on planetary surfaces.
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>> Space biology is NASA's hypothesis-driven,
discovery-based biological science in space
and the associated technology that goes along with that.
Human health is a very important part of space life sciences,
and space biology is this discovery-based,
animal and plant and cell research that leads
to those new countermeasures for going beyond low Earth orbit.
In space, cells do change,
and we want to understand not just what's changing
but how the proteins that are changing are working in the cell
and how that's adapting and responding
to the space environment.
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>> There are several microscopes onboard the ISS
to aid space biologists in their investigations.
The Light Microscopy Module, or LMM,
has already helped physicists and engineers develop novel,
advanced materials and improve consumer products,
both for Earth and in space applications.
The LMM is ready to provide a unique vantage point from which
to study the effects of space on biology.
Using a modified commercial Leica RXA laboratory microscope,
the NASA Glenn Research Center has configured the LMM
to allow real-time interaction and manipulation of experiments
in space and ground-based controls.
Interaction with the experiments is now routine,
based on experience for staff, researchers
and the in-flight ISS crew.
The LMM is located inside the Fluids Integrated Rack
of the U.S. Destiny Laboratory Module aboard the International
Space Station.
The FIR Rack provides the LMM
with common laboratory infrastructure,
including an optics bench, temperature control, power,
illumination, imaging, data processing, and isolation
from vibrations, so that high magnification images can be
captured without jitter.
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The Light Microscopy Module uses the existing electronics
of the Leica Microscope, supplemented with unique
and innovative internal and external electronics
to support remote operation,
enhanced automation and superior imaging.
Motors and linear actuators motorize the microscope's
manual functions.
Engineers at NASA Glenn Research Center equip the Leica
with 23 micro-motors, which permit remote control
by scientists on the ground
and reduce ISS crew time requirements in space.
This tends to increase the available time for research.
Two identical high-resolution black
and white cameras can be mounted on the headpiece --
one coaxially in the viewing axis of the microscope.
The other can be mounted at an angle in the tube assembly.
Additionally, a small surveillance camera is available
to be mounted inside the auxiliary fluids container,
where sample cells are processed and contained.
Imaging techniques include bright field
and fluorescents, from 2.5 to 100x.
The Flight LMM Microscope Fluorescence Turret has eight
locations, which are occupied with the following filters:
FITC, Texas Red, a polarizer, half-mirror, DAPI,
a 50/50 beam splitter cube, red, blue and green.
Plans are in development to reconfigure the filter turret
by replacing the red, green and blue filters
with a TRITC filter cube,
mirror and the blank location for confocal use.
The capabilities of the red,
blue and green pseudo-color can be replaced
with a color camera, when required.
The LMM has previously imaged regular
and specialty microscope slides, including petri dishes
and Opticells, which allow oxygen transport
through a membrane and provide for containment
of the biological sample and the sample medium.
>> The benefits for being able to view the experiment
as it develops on orbit is huge, because they enable
to see things as they are functioning, in the environment
in which you're testing.
Because by the time you get the plants back
from orbit, they've changed.
And so if you can't capture those images immediately
or very soon while they're being challenged in the environment
of the space station, you lose -- you lose those critical data.
And so you really have to be able to view them in situ.
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>> The LMM can support five main areas of space biology
with an orbit viewing of materials before gelling
or freezing -- plant research, cell culture research,
micro-organism research, invertebrate research,
vertebrate research, macro-molecular biophysics.
>> I am a NASA biomedical engineer and lea d developer
of our VESGEN software.
The fractal-based software maps
and quantifies vascular remodeling for human, vertebrate
and even invertebrate model systems.
We're also associating with the geometric dynamic dimensions
of vascular remodeling and blood flow
with essentially unlimited numbers
of bio-informatic dimensions.
These informatic dimensions of localized protein
and other molecular expression are captured
by fluorescence microscopy that is available to you now
on the LMM, for you space biology experiments,
with confocal capabilities planned in the near future.
These approaches are illustrated in our VESGEN mapping analysis
of vascular tissues in ISS model organisms,
that include the mouse GI and retina, fruit fly wings,
vascular patterning and an Arabidopsis leaves,
and even the human retina for our research
on astronaut ocular and vision problems.
We invite you to picture your space biology research,
using the LMM and potentially other microscopes,
manifesting in future ISS missions until 2024.
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>> Currently, the microscope offers backlighting
and FE fluorescent illumination.
High-resolution color video microscopy, dark field
and phase contrast capabilities are also being developed.
A commercial condenser has been proposed
to provide bright field illumination.
The FIR and LMM upgrades for a confocal scanner,
a neodymium mag laser and faster digital cameras are manifested
for 2016.
This will enable 3D structures to be analyzed in more detail.
>> Using the LMM for biology is a bit of a challenge.
It's not designed for biology, per se.
And so a scientist, a biological scientist,
has to adapt the biology to be able to fit both operationally
and physically into the unit.
However, being able to view things in situ at this kind
of level of resolution -- the microscopic level --
also with fluorescence, is a huge advantage to most
of the kind of biology that many of us do,
and it's certainly worth the effort.
>> Space biology experiments scheduled to be flown
and observed in the LMM over the next several months include APEX
III, or the Events Planned Experiments in Orbit,
flying on SpX-5 and 6.
Generally, there are 30-day docking periods
that are available for space biology experiments,
before the physics colloids experiments begin.
>> The LMM can aid space biologists, physicists,
chemists, engineers and graduate student researchers
in achieving a better understanding
of biological samples, colloids and other physical processes
on the microscopic level.
If you're planning a project that could benefit
from in-flight observations and the Light Microscopy Module,
there are several ways to proceed.
You can use the CASIS Program, a NASA Research Announcement
or contact your program executive at NASA headquarters
to get on the flight manifest.
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