Advanced Tech on Station Informs Space-Designed Health Treatments

The Expedition 74 crew explored how weightlessness affects cartilage growth and the digestive system to protect crew health and improve patient care on Earth, while preparing for a robotics maintenance spacewalk at the end of the month on the International Space Station.

Research in microgravity provides insights unobtainable in Earth’s gravity that can inform therapies, medicines, industrial processes and spacecraft designs. NASA flight engineers Jessica Meir and Chris Williams worked in the Kibo laboratory module’s Life Science Glovebox on a biotechnology investigation.

Williams retrieved cartilage cell samples from a science freezer and thawed them, then Meir nourished the samples and stowed them in a research incubator so tissues could begin growing. Manufacturing cartilage in space could lead to self-repairing implants on Earth and advance fitness techniques for astronauts on long-term spaceflight.

space station, microgravity, cartilage growth, cartilage implants, digestive system, life science, kibo module, research incubator, jessica meir, chris williams