MELBOURNE, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Scientists in Australia have sent two 10 cm-high "cell hotels" on an international space mission to study how the absence of gravity affects the human gut, potentially transforming health and wellbeing in space and on Earth.
The small "hotel" cubes were among 21 international experiments weighing about 500 kg on a sounding rocket launched by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) from Sweden on Nov. 12, according to a Monday news release by Australia's La Trobe University, which designed the miniature laboratories with Melbourne engineering firm Enable Aerospace.
La Trobe ran two mini labs on the shuttle, each containing gut cells called "Gastronauts," studied before, during, and after the just over 6-minute zero gravity flight at nearly 270 km altitude to understand how the cells adapt in space, revealing insights into cell communication, regeneration, and cancer, said Professor Patrick Humbert, director of the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science.
"If we remove gravity, we can discover why and how gravity is important for health," said Humbert, also primary investigator of the Gastronauts project, adding the results could benefit astronaut health and lead to medical advances on Earth.
The small modules took a year to design and test, built to keep biological samples alive and stable while enduring vibration, radiation, launch, and re-entry extremes, researchers said, adding each cube contained a cell hotel and a microgravity microscope to capture physiological changes invisible under normal conditions.
It gives scientists valuable information on human gut biology in the space environment, with each experiment compared to an identical test on the ground, they said.
This flight marked La Trobe's third participation in DLR's MAPHEUS (Material Physics Experiments under Microgravity) program, a high-altitude research initiative since 2009, the release said. ■
