Page 85 - International Space Station Benefits for Humanity, 3rd edition.

receive experiment data. The ICE Cubes service was type of investigation difficult at home, the space station’s
enabled by a commercial partnership between Space microgravity environment makes it the perfect place for
Applications Services, Belgium, and the European fractional gravity experimentation. MVP greatly expands
Space Agency (ESA), and is part of the agency’s that testing capability for the space station.
Space Exploration Strategy to ensure access to the MVP vastly expands commercial and research
microgravity research possibilities in LEO. opportunities in LEO. Several investigations are
ICE Cubes are small, modular containers that slot into already lined up for the platform, and customers
a rack drawer about the size of a microwave oven on include government, academic and commercially
the Columbus laboratory, and connect to electrical based teams. “This is a permanent, commercially
power and monitoring systems. The ICE Cubes service owned research facility that gives researchers
allows experiments to run for more than 4 months in the opportunity to study the effects of gravity and
space, and include astronaut time and expert advice partial gravity on living organisms, and, hopefully, by
as part of the package. If required, experiments and extrapolation to humans,” said Rich Boling of Techshot,
samples can be returned to Earth for analysis. the company responsible for MVP’s design and build.
The first experiments were installed by ESA astronaut What makes the facility so special is its size and
Alexander Gerst in July 2018 and include projects capability. Containing two carousels that spin quickly
supplied by the International Space University. to simulate up to two times the force of gravity, the
The first experiment is researching methane-producing platform is the largest centrifuge in the U.S. segment
microorganisms and how they behave in space. of the space station and allows investigators more room
These examples highlight the versatility of a simpler, for, and control over, their research. With room for six
faster and more affordable access to research on experiment modules on each carousel, Techshot can
the ISS, ensuring any company, entity or educational fly up to 12 separate modules on MVP at a time.
institution can be a part of microgravity research in Each module is equipped with temperature sensors,
space for years to come. and the box that houses the carousels and modules
can be set to the exact environmental specifications
requested for any investigation.
The Commercial Multi-use When asked what kinds of investigations the platform
Variable-g Platform could host, Boling said, “It’s really whatever investigators
Delivered to the ISS aboard SpaceX CRS-14, the could dream up that they want to put inside of these
Techshot-developed Multi-use Variable-g Platform experiment modules. Each one empty is about 800ccs
(MVP) is a new commercial test bed for centrifuge- of volume. So whatever a research team wants for that
based science aboard the space station. Because volume, we can make it happen, get it up there, and get
gravity determines so much of a live organism’s it back. For example, we have a tissue chip investigation
behavior and growth, centrifuge-based experiments
have long been a part of biological investigations in
space. Although the pull of Earth’s gravity makes this

Delivered to the ISS aboard
SpaceX CRS-14, the
Techshot-developed Multi-use
Variable-g Platform (MVP) is
a new commercial test bed
for centrifuge-based science Techshot’s MVP allows researchers to control
and vary the level of gravity for their experiments
aboard the space station. using centrifuge technology.
Image credit: Techshot

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