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>> THIS IS A PAYLOAD
THAT'S GONNA BE ON
THE JEM XPOSED MODULE,
SO IT'S HANGIN' ON THE OUTSIDE
OF THE ISS LOOKIN' DOWN
AT THE EARTH.
AND WHAT ARE WE DOING?
WE'RE TRYING TO MEASURE
ATMOSPHERIC CARBON DIOXIDE.
PLANTS ARE ACTUALLY
DOING US A HUGE FAVOR.
THOSE PLANTS IN THE OCEAN
TAKE ABOUT HALF OF
THE ATMOSPHERIC CARBON DIOXIDE
THAT HUMANS EMIT OUT EVERY YEAR.
BUT SOME YEARS IT'S 20%.
SOME YEARS IT'S 80%,
AND WE'VE GOTTA FIGURE OUT
WHY THAT IS.
SO OCO-2 HAS STARTED COLLECTING
ATMOSPHERIC CARBON DIOXIDE DATA.
WE'VE BEEN DOING THAT
SINCE 2014.
OCO-3 IS MEANT TO CONTINUE
THAT RECORD OF CARBON DIOXIDE,
AND BUILD ONTO WHAT
OCO-2 STARTED.
BUT BEING ON THE SPACE STATION
IS A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT.
YOU KNOW IT'S IN
THIS PRECESSING ORBIT.
EVERY DAY IT GOES OVER YOUR HEAD
A LITTLE BIT EARLIER IN THE DAY.
WE'LL HAVE THESE DETAILED
LITTLE SNAPSHOT MAPS
OF CARBON DIOXIDE AND SIF
THAT ARE UNLIKE DATA
WE'VE COLLECTED BEFORE.
LET US SEE NEW THINGS
ABOUT FORESTS, CROP AREAS,
AND OF COURSE THERE'S FOLKS
WANNA LOOK AT CITIES
AND POWER PLANTS.
SO THE SNAPSHOT MAP'S
GONNA BE A GREAT NEW WAY
TO GET A DETAILED PICTURE
OF CARBON DIOXIDE.
>> WE'RE INTERESTED IN
STUDYING PLANETARY BODIES.
SO IN PARTICULAR,
MY RESEARCH OF FOCUS IS ON
STUDYING ASTEROIDS.
THE GOAL OF HERMES IS
TO STUDY THE SURFACE MATERIAL
OF ASTEROIDS, AND THIS IS
SOMETHING THAT WE CALL REGOLITH,
THIS FINE PARTICLE, FINE DUST
THAT COVERS THE ENTIRE SURFACE.
THERE'S A LOT OF INTEREST
IN ONE DAY SENDING ASTRONAUTS
TO ASTEROIDS, FOR INSTANCE,
UM, AND WE HAVE ALREADY
SENT A LOT OF ROBOTIC MISSIONS
TO ASTEROIDS,
AND PLAN TO SEND MORE.
AND SO WE WOULD NEED TO
UNDERSTAND HOW TO INTERACT
WITH THE ASTEROID SURFACE.
SO IF YOU WERE GOING TO ANCHOR
TO THE SURFACE OF THE ASTEROID,
FOR INSTANCE, UM, YOU NEED
TO UNDERSTAND HOW TO INTERACT
WITH THE REGOLITH.
WHY DO WE WANNA STUDY THIS
ON THE ISS?
SO IT'S NOT JUST THE LONG
DURATION EXPOSURE MICROGRAVITY.
UM, IT'S ALSO-- SOMETHING
THAT WE HAVE ON ASTEROIDS
IS VACUUM, RIGHT?
SO WE WANNA EXPOSE
OUR EXPERIMENTS TO THE VACUUM
OF SPACE, SO WE ACTUALLY HAVE
OUR FACILITY HOOKED UP
ESSENTIALLY TO A PORT TO SPACE.
SO THIS WILL BE
A PERMANENT FACILITY
ON THE SPACE STATION.
AND THE IDEA IS THAT WE'LL
SEND DIFFERENT SCIENCE PACKAGES
THAT ARE CALLED CASSETTES THAT
WILL GO INSIDE THE FACILITY.
UM, SO WE DID CASSETTE-1,
BUT THE IDEA IS THAT
HERMES WILL BE OPEN TO
OTHER INVESTIGATORS,
SO CASSETTE-2, CASSETTE-3,
CASSETTE-7, THESE WILL BE
OTHER RESEARCHERS THAT WILL
APPLY TO USE HERMES TO DO
RESEARCH ON ASTEROID REGOLITH
AND GRANULAR MATERIAL
INVESTIGATIONS.
>> THIS IS A TINY BIOENGINEERED
DEVICE THAT CONTAINS
LIVING HUMAN CELLS
THAT ARE DESIGNED TO RECREATE
THE STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION
OF YOUR TISSUES IN YOUR BODY.
SO WE SEE TISSUE CHIPS
AS A TOOL TO HELP UNDERSTAND
DISEASES AND SPEED THE PROCESS
OF DRUG DISCOVERY,
WHICH DOWN HERE ON EARTH
RIGHT NOW IS EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE
AND TAKES A REALLY,
REALLY LONG TIME.
WE'RE USING MICROGRAVITY ALSO
AS A TOOL, BECAUSE AS YOU KNOW,
MICROGRAVITY CAUSES CHANGES
IN PHYSIOLOGY IN ASTRONAUTS
THAT OFTEN SEEM TO MIMIC
WHAT'S QUITE SIMILAR TO
SOME DISEASE STATES
OR AGING HERE ON EARTH.
THAT HAPPENS ON A REALLY
SHORT TIME SCALE, SO WE'RE
ESSENTIALLY ABLE TO SPEED UP
THE WHOLE PROCESS OF
DISEASE MODELING
AND TESTING OF DRUGS
BY USING THESE TISSUE CHIPS
UP ON THE SPACE STATION.
SO THAT'S A BIG WIN
DOWN FOR US HERE ON EARTH.
ALL OF THESE TECHNOLOGICAL
ADVANCES AND THE-THE PROBLEMS
THAT THE TEAMS HAVE HAD
TO ENCOUNTER TO SHRINK
THEIR TECHNOLOGY AND MAKE IT
REALLY ROBUST IS GONNA BE
TRANSFORMATIONAL FOR
THE TECHNOLOGY BACK DOWN HERE
ON EARTH, BECAUSE IT'S GONNA
MAKE THIS TECHNOLOGY
MUCH MORE BROADLY ACCESSIBLE
TO A WIDER AUDIENCE WHO CAN
USE IT DOWN HERE ON EARTH.
SO WE HAVE FOUR PROJECTS
THAT ARE LAUNCHING.
WE HAVE A TEAM FROM
THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON,
WHO IS GOING TO BE SENDING UP
A KIDNEY CHIP.
>> WE'RE ACTUALLY SENDING UP
24 OF THESE CHIPS TO
THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION,
SO THAT'S 72 INDIVIDUAL TUBULES.
NOT ONLY IS A KIDNEY
VERY IMPORTANT FOR FILTERING
OUR BLOOD AND REMOVING
WASTE PRODUCTS VIA URINE,
BUT IT'S ALSO A KEY ORGAN
INVOLVED IN THE SYNTHESIS
OF A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT
HORMONES AND VITAMINS.
ONE OF THOSE VITAMINS
IS VITAMIN D.
AND SO WE ACTUALLY HOPE
TO LEARN IN A MATTER OF
A COURSE OF WEEKS IS
HOW DOES OSTEOPOROSIS,
VI-VITAMIN D METABOLISM OCCUR
IN A DISEASE WHICH TYPICALLY
TAKES PLACE OVER THE COURSE
OF YEARS IF NOT DECADES.
>> WE ARE THE 2018
GENES IN SPACE WINNING TEAM.
SO IF YOU'RE UNFAMILIAR WITH
GENES IN SPACE, UM,
IT'S A 7TH TO 12TH GRADE
DNA COMPETITION WHERE YOU
DESIGN AN EXPERIMENT
TO TAKE PLACE ON
THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.
>> DNA IS THE BLUEPRINT
OF LIFE, RIGHT?
SO IT ENCODES ALL
OUR GENETIC INFORMATION, UM,
AND IT GETS TRANSCRIBED TO RNA,
WHICH IS TRANSLATED TO PROTEINS,
WHICH OF COURSE HELP
ALL OF OUR CELLS FUNCTION.
ASTRONAUTS UNDERGO
HIGH RADIATION FROM HZE IONS
OR GALACTIC COSMIC RAYS,
WHICH CAN LEAD TO THESE
DOUBLE STRANDED BREAKS.
SO OUR OBJECTIVE IN THIS,
UH, EXPERIMENT WAS TO EXAMINE
HOW REPAIR PATHWAY FREQUENCIES
AND DOUBLE STRANDED BREAK REPAIR
AS A WHOLE ARE AFFECTED
BY MICROGRAVITY.
SO TO-TO TEST OUR HYPOTHESIS,
WE'RE GONNA BE USING
THE CRISPR-CAS9 SYSTEM.
>> WE WANT TO VERIFY THAT
CAS9 CAN CUT IN SPACE,
AND THAT WE CAN DEDUCE
REPAIR PATHWAY FREQUENCIES BASED
ON THE RESULTING SEQUENCES.
SO THE RESULTS OF
THESE EXPERIMENTS COULD HELP
SET THE STAGE FOR
GENOMIC EDITING IN SPACE
AND PROTECT ASTRONAUTS
FROM INTENSE RADIATION
EXPERIENCED IN FLIGHT.
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