Experiment Design FAQ

The mini-laboratory used for the SSEP Mission 17 to ISS flight opportunity will have three levels of containment to protect crew, ferry vehicle, and ISS. This provides so much redundancy against an accidental leak that a great variety of samples (fluids and solids) can be used by a student team. However, there are four classes of restrictions on samples that can be used:

1. Prohibited Samples: Must not be used.
2. Hazardous Samples: NASA and Nanoracks reserve the right to refuse any samples deemed as hazardous, so each must be reviewed in advance of proposal submission. Examples of hazardous samples include biologicals with a designated BioSafety Level of 2 or higher. Anything above a BSL-2 Moderate is not acceptable in any situation. 
3. Problematic Samples: Strongly advise the use of an alternative sample. If an alternative sample is not available, submit for review ASAP as compatibility testing in a mini-lab with exact volumes and concentrations for the duration of the experiment on-orbit is likely to be required.
4. Technology: Must not be used. This includes batteries, lighting, and any device that is associated with electrical circuits and/or mechanical systems.

Please note that all human samples, such as blood, will need to be tested for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV-1, HIV-2, HTLV-1, and HTLV-2. A comprehensive overview of each of these four classes is found on the SSEP Mission 17 to ISS: Mini-Lab Operation page, Section 6.1. 

No, the FMEs will be inside the ISS crew cabin during their stay on the station, and so the payload will be exposed to the ambient radiation environment inside the station. Note, however, that the radiation levels even inside the ISS are higher than on the ground, so it might not be necessary to consider placing the experiment outside the station, even if it were possible. It has been estimated that the typical daily radiation dose to the astronauts aboard the ISS is approximately equivalent to what they would receive on the surface of the Earth for a year of exposure to natural sources other than radon.

Unfortunately, no. There can be no request for the astronaut to: observe what is happening in the FME; take notes; photograph the FME; or videotape the FME. There is also no means of active data acquisition on ISS for SSEP experiments. Only your team can make measurements, and at two times: before you ship the sealed FME to Houston, and after it has been returned to you after the flight.

No, there is no onboard light source and the FMEs are housed in an opaque payload box and only removed from the box during crew interaction times on the 5 designated crew interaction days. Technology including, any type of lights, are also not allowed inside the mini-lab. The only possibility for exposure to light is to request the crew “wait” while holding the mini-lab outside of the opaque payload box in the ambient light of the ISS for the maximum allowed crew interaction time, 120 seconds.

Fluid behavior in a microgravity environment is different than what is exhibited here on Earth. On Earth, if one imagines a tube as wide as the FME holding a fluid, then turning it vertically, the fluid would flow to the bottom of the tube. But that is due to the action of gravity. In space there is no such fluid flow. There is no experienced force of gravity. To the fluid there is no up or down in a microgravity environment. Thus, no orientation of the tube will assist with mixing or draining. Mixing should be accomplished through a request for the astronaut to shake the tube.

There is no chance for your samples to freeze during transportation to the ISS.  However, there is a possibility that they could freeze during transportation from your community to Houston, and from Houston back to your community. If you ship in winter via FedEx, the truck may be at below freezing temperatures.

For your experiment design there is no need to be overly concerned about the effect of liftoff or reentry on your experiment. While the liftoff and landing environment is memorable for the astronauts, they are not severe enough to be a significant concern for equipment and experiments aboard the spacecraft. The liftoff will not affect mixing of samples in the mini-laboratory, since the experiment volumes are not combined until after the payload is in the “quiet” environment of orbit, and during landing, it is not expected to have an effect on the experiment, either, since all experiment volumes have been combined and mixed in orbit already. For experiment design, the main concern about the landing is the fact that the gravity environment goes from the microgravity of orbit to the normal gravity of the Earth’s surface, which may or may not be an important consideration, depending on your experiment.

A kit of 5 mini-labs, the flight hardware, is provided to all communities. However, each local SSEP team is responsible for supplying students with the experiment samples, instruments, and tools needed for experiment design, testing, and refinement.

All foods are likely not associated with any of the Prohibited Samples, but would still need to be assessed as to whether they might be a Hazardous Sample or a Problematic Sample.

Unfortunately, no. Once Nanoracks receives the flight-ready FME, they will heat seal two polyethylene bags around it to serve as a second and third level of containment, load the sealed FME in the Payload Box, and deliver the entire payload to NASA for integration into the launch vehicle. The FME will remain inside the bags until it returns to Earth. Otherwise the three levels of containment would be breached, compromising this important flight safety aspect. 

Astronauts can only manipulate the FMEs on the specific five available Crew Interaction Days. The astronauts will work with the SSEP payload at a time that fits best in their work schedule on each day. The time at which the payload is handled may also change from one day to another. On a given Crew Interaction Day, an astronaut will conduct all interactions with the SSEP experiments payload during a single block of time, and will not return to the SSEP payload at a later time that day. The astronaut cannot spend more than 120 seconds total on a specific mini-lab on a given Crew Interaction Day.

Each student team is writing an experiment proposal to try and secure the experiment slot aboard the ISS for their experiment, just like real scientists writing research proposals. Typically, scientists want to try and test their proposed experiment as much as possible before writing the actual proposal to make sure the experiment is viable. In fact, describing the tests in a proposal shows that the experiment is well thought out, and, since the basic operation of the experiment is now well understood, more likely to succeed. For the purposes of the SSEP, tests done by the student teams can answer simple questions such as “Do the samples fit in the FME experiment volumes?”, “Can I obtain the samples I need?”, “Will the seed germinate in the time the FME is aboard the ISS?” – questions that would not be possible to answer by just thinking about them. Therefore, while conducting test experiments before writing a proposal is not required, it is VERY HIGHLY recommended.