Crew begins week with cartilage printing and plant harvesting

Expedition 74 began the week bioprinting human cartilage tissue and harvesting alfalfa aboard the International Space Station to advance crew health and promote self-sufficiency. The orbital residents also retrieved materials exposed to the external space environment and conducted ultrasound vein scans to study how living in space affects physics and biology.

Flight engineer Jessica Meir opened the Kibo laboratory module’s Life Science Glovebox and set up a bioprinter to produce viable cartilage tissues. Chris Williams assisted by collecting frozen cartilage samples for thawing, then mixing living cells with a gel-like bioink for placement in a printing cartridge.

The biotechnology study tests manufacturing cartilage in weightlessness to increase stability for printing on-demand implants using a patient’s own cells.

space station, bioprinting, cartilage, alfalfa, glovebox, bioprinter, bioink, jessica meir, chris williams, expedition 74