Development of a Cubesat Platform for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical LEO Experiments

Robson, Daniel; Cappelletti, Chantal; Segal, Joel; Williams, Phil; Szewczyk, Nathaniel

Abstract

Undertaking biology experiments in space is a necessary and important part of understanding evolution, adaption, and ageing, and crucial to the enablement of safe human exploration away from Earth. Access to space, however, is difficult, costly and restricted. As part of a coordinated research programme across many areas of space biology, engineering and medicine, we are developing a 3U CubeSat designed as a flexible platform for conducting experiments in LEO. The design and development of the platform offers an exciting opportunity for undergraduate and postgraduate researchers. The University will lead the development and verification of hardware and software for the mission, utilising offthe-shelf components and the manufacturing facilities and expertise available at the University. The first exemplar payload will consist of a small colony of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a model organism used extensively in spaceflight research (Adenle et al., 2009) (Ishioka & Higashibata, 2019). A small, robust, low-power microscope is required for observation of the nematode culture chamber, with data transmission removing the need for physical sample return. The measurements can be used with existing ground control results to verify the University’s capabilities to provide the nematodes with a suitably accurate Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS), and the sector with a new, cheap microgravity platform for biological experiments.

Citation

Robson, D., Cappelletti, C., Segal, J., Williams, P., & Szewczyk, N. (2020, January). Development of a Cubesat Platform for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical LEO Experiments. Presented at Fifth IAA Conference on Dynamics and Control of Space Systems, Rome, Italy

• Presentation Conference Type: Edited Proceedings
• Conference Name: Fifth IAA Conference on Dynamics and Control of Space Systems
• Start Date: Jan 28, 2020
• End Date: Jan 31, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020
• Deposit Date: Apr 12, 2024
• Publisher: American Astronautical Society
• Pages: 189-196
• Series Title: Advances in the Astronautical Sciences Series
• Series Number: 173
• Book Title: Advances in the Astronautical Sciences Fifth IAA Conference on University Satellite Missions and CubeSat Workshop 2020
• ISBN: 9780877036715
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/27874166
• Related Public URLs: https://www.univelt.com/book=8035