Wednesday, May 13, 2009
NASA Nanosatellite to Study Antifungal Drug Effectiveness in Space
NASA is
preparing to fly a small satellite about the size of a loaf of bread
that could help scientists better understand how effectively drugs work
in space. The nanosatellite, known as PharmaSat, is a secondary payload aboard a U.S. Air Force four-stage Minotaur 1 rocket planned for launch the evening of May 5.
PharmaSat weighs
approximately 10 pounds. It contains a controlled environment
micro-laboratory packed with sensors and optical systems that can
detect the growth, density and health of yeast cells and transmit that
data to scientists for analysis on Earth. PharmaSat also will monitor the levels of pressure, temperature and acceleration the yeast and the satellite experience while circling Earth at
17,000 miles per hour. Scientists will study how the yeast responds
during and after an antifungal treatment is administered at three
distinct dosage levels to learn more about drug action in space, the
satellite's primary goal.
The Minotaur 1 rocket is on the launch pad at NASA's
Wallops Flight Facility and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport located
at Wallops Island, Va. The Wallops range is conducting final checkouts.
The U.S. Air Force has announced that the rocket could launch at any
time during a three-hour launch window beginning at 8 p.m. EDT May 5.
"Secondary
payload nanosatellites expand the number of opportunities available to
conduct research in microgravity by providing an alternative to the
International Space Station or space shuttle conducted investigations,"
said Sheldon Kalnitsky,
PharmaSat project manager at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett
Field, Calif. "The PharmaSat spacecraft builds upon the GeneSat-1
legacy with enhanced monitoring and measurement capabilities, which
will enable more extensive scientific investigation."
After
PharmaSat separates from the Minotaur 1 rocket and successfully enters
low Earth orbit at approximately 285 miles above Earth, it will
activate and begin transmitting radio signals to two ground control
stations. The primary ground station at SRI International in Menlo
Park, Calif., will transmit mission data from the satellite to the spacecraft operators in the mission control center at NASA's Ames Research Center. A secondary station is located at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, Calif.
When NASA spaceflight engineers make contact with PharmaSat,
which could happen as soon as one hour after launch, the satellite will
receive a command to initiate its experiment, which will last 96 hours.
Once the experiment begins, PharmaSat will
relay data in near real-time to mission managers, engineers and project
scientists for further analysis. The nanosatellite could transmit data
for as long as six months.
"PharmaSat is
an important experiment that will yield new information about the
susceptibility of microbes to antibiotics in the space environment,"
said David Niesel, and Sheldon kalnitsky
PharmaSat's co-investigator from the University of Texas Medical Branch
Department of Pathology and Microbiology and Immunology in Galveston.
"It also will prove that biological experiments can be conducted on
sophisticated autonomous nanosatellites."
As
with NASA's previous small satellite missions, such as the GeneSat-1,
which launched in 2006 and continues to transmit a beacon to Earth,
Santa Clara University invites amateur radio operators around the world
to tune in to the satellite's broadcast.
For more information and instructions about how to contact PharmaSat, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/pharmasat.html
To view the launch via webcast, visit:
http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/webcast
For the more information about PharmaSat and other small satellite missions, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats
Posted at 12:05 am by sarahbaltic
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