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We have long gazed at the heavens to find answers
for humanities most perplexing mysteries.
What lies beyond the sky?
What are the stars made of?
What caused Earth and the other planets to condense and form?
Searching in space for answers
to these big questions has taught us remarkable things
that have improved our wellbeing here on Earth.
The idea of using space
to answer our biggest questions is easy to accept.
Space can also be used to help us unlock answers to questions
at the other end of the spectrum in the microscopic range.
By observing single cells and micron-sized particles
and clusters of molecules in space,
and understanding their dynamics and interactions
without the masking force of gravity,
researchers can develop new materials
with unique properties.
Functional materials are playing an increasingly important role
in our modern society.
They form the basis for a wide range of technologies.
They're needed for computation, communications, and for storage
and display of information.
These are materials whose function is associated
with their electric, magnetic, and optical properties.
Functional materials are also used for the generation
and storage of energy, formability, and for sensing.
For example, learning to work with 3-D structures made
from colloids that are the size of the wavelength of light,
will allow us to directly control light.
We're using the microgravity environment provided
on the International Space Station
to extend our understanding of colloidal engineering to 3D.
This will help provide many of the building blocks
for these new technologies.
Colloidal suspensions appear everywhere.
In all types of industrial and technological applications.
Complex fluids and soft materials contribute
about 5% to the US GDP.
And about 30% to US manufacturing output.
New discoveries and improvements represent a weighty potential
for economic and scientific advancement.
The Light Microscopy Module -- or LMM --
a modified, commercial, Leica RXA,
a laboratory microscope aboard the International Space Station
continues to contribute to this research.
Performing experiments aboard the ISS helps researchers
to better understand complex processes
by removing the masking effects of gravity from the equation.
The NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland,
Ohio has configured and maintained the LMM
and common laboratory infrastructure inside the ISS's
fluids integrated rack.
Researchers can interact with their experiments in space
in real time, using ground-based controls.
This year, the LMM team is planning
to install a confocal scanning feature to the core microscope.
It will also upgrade LMM's digital camera
and supporting electronics.
Confocal microscopy allows colloidal specimens
to be observed with improved contrast and a depth of field.
A frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser inside the LMM uses 532
nanometer green laser lighting to tightly focus light
onto fluorescing microstructures
in a very narrow, moveable focal plane.
The confocal images are acquired at 10 frames per second
as the microscope stage is raised,
and assembled layer-by-layer into a stack,
resulting in a 3-dimensional model of a microscopic structure
that can later be rotated and examined from any angle.
Matthew Lynch has manifested to use confocal microscopy
and microgravity to observe the evolution of the microstructure
of material in colloidal gels in 3D.
Understanding what happens at the particle level
in reduced gravity can lead to better stabilizers
to give consumer products longer shelf life.
The idea simply is this.
We make a lot of products,
and the products contain suspended particles.
And the problem with suspended particles in a normal kind
of environment is that particles like to separate.
They'll either rise to the top or they'll settle to the bottom.
Well it turns out that looking at these phenomenon
under gravity is really, really complicated, right?
So these things will settle; these things will rise.
All that happens at very, very fast timescales.
And it kind of masks in a sense some of the underlying physics
that we'd like to understand.
And we've done work in the past with a fluorescent microscope.
And the problem
with a fluorescent microscope is it gives you some good,
semi-quantitative information about the location
and whereabouts of the different particles in time.
The problem is, is that the pictures --
at a lack of a more scientific term, are somewhat fuzzy.
You can see them.
You can kind
of semi-quantitative understand how they're assembled
to put together.
Quantitatively it's very, very difficult
to extract a lot of information out.
The confocal's really kind of a step change in our ability to do
that more quantitative measure.
The particles are crisp; they're clean.
And not only the two-dimensional image that we can see,
the normal fluorescent scope,
but there are actually 3-dimensional images
that we can raster through
and reassemble 3-dimensional structures.
Looking forward to it.
Should be a really nice way of really extending our science.
Microgravity aids the industrial development
of material properties masked
by sedimentation in Earth's gravity.
Self-assembly of colloidal particles in electrical
and magnetic fields
in microgravity allows new materials
with unique electrical, magnetic,
or optical properties to be discovered.
Long-term study of the thermophysical properties
of 3-D structures grown from colloids
and biomolecules may yield better solar cells
by using the charge carries in nanoparticle haloing.
Structural knowledge for the development
of product stabilizers and the growth of crystals
in microgravity can lead
to improved pharmaceuticals and polymers.
Particle shapes can be found to make paints
and inks that dry evenly.
And materials that share the strengths
of both ordered crystals and disordered glasses.
And studying the microstructure of large,
surface area electrodes can lead
to more powerful and robust batteries.
The Ace experiments represent the potential
for significant advancements in the broad field known
as colloidal engineering.
Hello, I'm Ron Sicker, the Light Microscopy Module
Payload Manager.
2016 has been another exciting year for microscopic research
on the International Space Station.
Three experiments were conducted in the LMM, bringing the total
to 15 since operations started in 2010.
A nanoparticle haloing experiment was conducted
in a new heated sample module.
Nanoparticle haloing has been predicted by theory,
and could be an important breakthrough for solar cells.
A medical device experiment,
called Microchannel Diffusion Experiment captured images
of particles that can be scaled up due
to the microgravity environment on the ISS.
The Advanced Coolant Experiment features temperature control
and [inaudible] mixing.
This self-assembled experiment was conducted
by a new international partner
at Chungnam National University in Korea.
Next year we'll bring new, 3-D confocal capabilities
for colloids research at the micron particle level
and protein crystal life science research.
This work is sponsored by the Space Life
and Physical Sciences division at NASA headquarters,
and the NASA Johnson Spaceflight Center, Codes OZ and OB
with collaboration from cases
and our International Space Station partners.
Thank you for attending the fluid physics session
at the 2016 ASGSR.
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