Page 80 - International Space Station Benefits for Humanity, 3rd edition.

ISS that did not require specialized equipment was ranging from microorganisms through small organisms,
typically just under $100,000. As of 2018, NanoRacks cell and tissue culture, and small plants. An important
advertised charges of $35,000 for a basic NanoLabs feature on the SABL is its USB compatibility, which
CubeLab module. This includes filing the necessary allows support of any future scientific tools with USB
paperwork, manifesting the payload on an ISS resupply connectivity to work with SABL.
vehicle, installing the equipment, and taking care of all The Multiple User System for Earth Sensing Facility
government relations for the research, with a standard (MUSES) is an example of a commercial research
30 days of research on an ISS facility. facility housed externally on the ISS. Developed in
As of 2018, at least 15 active commercial facilities are a cooperative agreement between Teledyne Brown
operating onboard the ISS, with companies such as Engineering and NASA, MUSES provides many
BioServe, Made In Space, NanoRacks, Space Tango, commercial companies the opportunity to conduct their
TechShot and Teledyne Brown Engineering leading science and research in space. MUSES supports many
the way toward expansion. Many of these organizations different kinds of investigations and hardware, providing
have used their own resources to invest in on-orbit precision pointing and other accommodations for
research and development facilities, thereby reducing various kinds of research and science disciplines.
the risk for the federal sector to develop these facilities Another example, Veggie, is a low-cost plant growth
and services. In addition, many of these facilities can chamber that uses a flat-panel light bank that includes
provide remote control of experiments from the ground, red, blue and green light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for plant
thus freeing up valuable crew time to focus on those growth and crew observation. Veggie’s unique design is
tasks and investigations that truly need hands-on collapsible for transport and storage and expandable up
attention. These companies find research customers to a 0.5 meters (1.5 feet) as plants grow inside. Sierra
through the ISS research partners, the ISS National Nevada Corporation’s wholly owned subsidiary, Orbital
Laboratory, and their own business development efforts Technologies Corporation (ORBITEC) in Madison, Wis.,
to enable the R&D for research customers.
developed Veggie through a Small Business Innovative
For example, the Space Automated Bioproduct Research (SBIR) Program. NASA and ORBITEC
Laboratory (SABL) is a commercial facility developed engineers and collaborators at NASA’s Kennedy
by Bioserve that can support a range of investigations Space Center in Florida worked to get the unit’s
across life sciences, physical sciences and materials hardware flight-certified for use on the space station.
sciences. The SABL has interchangeable inserts that
allow it to support fundamental and applied research

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson poses with
cabbage plants in the Vegetable Production
Chinese cabbage plants for the Veg-03 System (Veggie) bellows in the Harmony Node
experiment growing in the Vegetable Production 2. Image was taken during final harvesting
System (Veggie). operations for the Veg-03 experiment.
Image credit: NASA Image credit: NASA

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