Technology Transfer

Discovery Holds Commercial Promise

THE SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY (STS-95), recently launched in October, was to take advantage of the unique environment of space to accommodate more than 80 scientific experiments. It included investigations into the inner universe of the human body and the Sun for the benefit of life on Earth.

Senator John H. Glenn, 77, the first American to orbit Earth, returned to space 36 years later as a payload specialist and test subject aboard STS-95. Glenn's specific investigations were to mimic the effect of aging, including loss of muscle mass and bone density, disrupted sleep patterns, a depressed immune system and loss of balance.

Glenn made history when he orbited Earth on February 20, 1962, in the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule. Since then, the 121 space flights prior to STS-95 have produced a wealth of scientific data validating apparent similarities between the effects of space flight and aging.

Discovery's payload bay also supported a range of experiments, including many related to the Sun and how it affects life on Earth, drives our weather and is capable of establishing and disrupting the space environment in which our satellites, communications, power systems, weather, defense and human space flight resources operate.

Space Flight and Aging

Certain physiological changes that occur in space also occur with aging. It is important to note that these changes—cardiovascular deconditioning, balance disorders, weakening bones and muscles, disturbed sleep and depressed immune response—are reversible in astronauts.

Gerontologists (those studying the aging process) and space life scientists are collaborating to determine how people adapt to aging and to the virtual absence of gravity in space. Space biomedical research could improve our understanding of the basic mechanisms of aging. Aging research could contribute to a better understanding of physiological deconditioning in space.

Space Flight and Muscle and Bone Research

Exposure to microgravity results in muscle atrophy and a decrease in bone density because of microgravity's effect on the normal turnover of bone minerals. Determining how the body translates its normal bone mass process and gravity-driven stresses into the signals that control bone structure may reveal whether, and how, exercise or drugs can prevent osteoporosis in the elderly and in astronauts. This study measured changes in muscle and bone as a result of space flight.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before and after exposure to microgravity will measure the volume of back, calf and thigh muscles before and after space flight. Following space flight, spinal disc and muscle recovery may be delayed, muscle damage may be greater, back pain may be exacerbated and bone marrow response may be blunted.

The protein turnover experiment studied the effects of space flight on whole-body and skeletal muscle protein metabolism. The data gathered will help determine the relationship between protein turnover and changes in the production of two hormones—insulin and cortisol—during space flight. Previous research indicates an increased breakdown of proteins during space flight, hypothesized as a stress response. Interestingly, a decrease in protein synthesis contributes to the loss of lean body mass in the elderly. The elderly experience stressful conditions (falls, among others), which may induce a stress-related increase in protein breakdown.

Space Flight and Cardiovascular Research

The three protocols conducted on STS-95 documented changes in heart rate and blood pressure regulation. Cardiovascular responses to standing before and after space flight were monitored to determine whether the heart rate exhibits less variability in microgravity than on Earth.

Studying the data from orthostatic function (standing upright) during entry, landing and egress will help determine whether microgravity affects the heart's ability to pump blood to the brain to maintain consciousness while standing upright. The elderly's problems with orthostatic tolerance may benefit from researchers studying the same effect on astronauts from exposure to microgravity.

In researching balance, the nervous system adapts to the loss of gravitational stimuli in the neurosensory systems after a few days in space. Information used to develop procedures to protect space crew members from such disturbances, especially when crews return to Earth after long space voyages, can be applied to developing ways to help the elderly and patients with gait and postural disorders of neurological origin.

Space Flight and Immune Function

Both aging and space flight depress human immune response, but the change from aging is not reversible. However, reduced proliferation of infection-fighting cells in the immune system may underlie changes in both conditions. It is not clear whether aging or other factors typically accompanying aging (such as declining activity) cause this immune system depression.

Protein Crystal Growth

Several experiments to increase the fundamental understanding of biochemistry of proteins flew on STS-95. Proteins are involved in nearly every metabolic process in the body. The following are brief descriptions of three experiments:

• The Protein Crystallization Apparatus for Microgravity (PCAM 1) is a cost-effective, quick-turnaround crystal growth facility that produces large, high-quality protein crystals. Researchers attempted to grow large, defect-free protein crystals to determine or improve the structure of several proteins on previous flights.
• The Commercial Protein Crystal Growth (CPCG) experiment was conducted to produce in microgravity high-quality protein crystals of interest to industry, including pharmaceuticals, crop growth and harvesting, and water treatment.
• The Advanced Protein Crystallization Facility (APCF), a veteran of four previous Space Shuttle missions, provides a cooled and heated volume to crystallize solution samples in orbital microgravity and to return them for postflight analysis.

Cancer Experiments

Microencapsulation Electrostatic Processing System (MEPS)

This process consists of unique microcapsules containing multiple cancer treatment drugs that, when injected into main arteries, are intended to temporarily reduce the tumor's blood supply to allow for the sustained release of cytotoxic drugs to tumor cells. The objectives are to:

• Study their formation
• Microencapsulate a photo-activated drug that destroys tumors when exposed to red light
• Apply electrostatic coating to anti-tumor capsules containing powerful chemotherapy drugs with a substance that resists attack by the body's immune system and increases its ability to destroy specific tumors

Experiments such as these could eventually lead to the development of anti-tumor drugs that allow for the delivery of several FDA-approved therapies, including high doses of chemotherapy, in the same capsule to the cancer site without affecting surrounding healthy cells while reducing unwanted side effects in cancer patients.

Studies of Key Enzymes, Human Proteins and Plant Cells

These studies may offer leads in cancer research. One experiment conducted will help researchers better understand the structure of urokinase, a protein identified as a key enzyme in the spread of brain, lung, colon, prostate and breast cancers. Such an experiment should result in more effective treatments targeting urokinase in the future. Human protein crystals stabilized by aspartame are being studied after the mission to help researchers develop a treatment for multiple myeloma bone cancer. Anti-cancer compounds derived from soybean cell cultures were also studied.

Other Experiments

These included manufacturing a lightweight substance with insulating properties that may be able to protect virtually anything from the heat or cold. When made on Earth, aerogel is not perfectly transparent. Manufacturing aerogel in microgravity could diminish its earthly irregularities. If aerogel could be made transparent, it could significantly lower heating and cooling costs and revolutionize the glass window industry.

Mission Information

Discovery's mission was commanded by Curtis L. Brown, Jr. (Lt. Col., U.S. Air Force), 42, making his fifth space flight and piloted by Steven W. Lindsey (Lt. Col., U.S. Air Force), 38, making his second flight. Three astronauts served as STS-95 mission specialists: Payload Commander and Mission Specialist-1 Stephen K. Robinson (Ph.D.), 43, making his second flight; Flight Engineer and Mission Specialist-2 Scott E. Parazynski, M.D., 37, making his third flight; and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut and Mission Specialist-3 Pedro Duque, 35 and from Spain, making his first space flight. In addition to Glenn, making a second flight is 46-year-old Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai, M.D./Ph.D., from the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA).

STS-95 is an example of researchers—both nationwide and worldwide—who are working together, using experiments in space and on the ground to benefit economic, social and industrial aspects of life for all of Earth. Also, U.S. universities, designated by NASA as Commercial Space Centers, share space advancements with U.S. industry to create new commercial products, applications and processes.

For more information, contact David R. Liskowsky, Ph.D., at NASA Headquarters.
Call: 202/358-1963, Fax: 202/358-4168, E-mail: david.liskowsky@hq.nasa.gov
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OSTEO (Osteoporosis Experiment in Orbit) is being studied by STS-95 crew members during a SPACEHAB briefing.

Four members of the STS-95 crew are briefed on video cameras during a crew training session in the systems integration facility at Johnson Space Center.