[Background Music]
>> The International Space Station is a state-of-the-art
research laboratory that allows scientific research
to be performed in the microgravity of space.
Research in the unique microgravity environment is
advancing our knowledge of biology, chemistry,
physics and physiology.
Scientists from all over the world are using facilities
on this highflying international laboratory that is packed
with some of the most sophisticated technologies
ever designed.
Space station research brings new discoveries,
furthers technology development, expands our limits
of exploration, and improves our way of life on Earth.
[ Music ]
>> Hi, my name is Janejit Gensler,
and I work on the International Space Station Program
at the NASA Johnson Space Center.
In my day-to-day work I get to work with scientists
and engineers who actually build hardware that flies
to the International Space Station.
I also get to work on outreach projects.
Today I'm at the Ames Research Center out in California.
And with me I have Dr. Sanjoy Som,
who's going to be launching a really cool experiment
to the International Space Station later on this year.
So, Sanjoy, why don't you introduce yourself?
>> Sure can do.
Welcome to Ames, Jane.
Hi, everyone!
My name is Sanjoy.
I have multiple jobs here at NASA Ames.
On the one side, I'm a scientist studying life
in extreme environments.
On the other end, I'm an engineer working
for the fruit fly lab project, which is launching this fall
to the International Space Station.
Myself and my colleague Julie are two systems engineer
for fruit fly lab.
That means we're in charge
of making sure the science requirements are translated
to the engineering hardware
and that the engineering hardware is then qualified
for flight to the International Space Station.
>> Wow, that sounds really cool.
>> It's fascinating work.
Hi, everyone.
Welcome to the actual fruit fly lab
within the science laboratories at NASA Ames Research Center.
This is my colleague, Dr. Hosamani [phonetic].
He is a scientist with the fruit fly lab mission.
It is very important for us engineers to talk
to the scientists regularly to make sure that their hypotheses
that they are testing on the space station is captured
by my engineering hardware.
So I just want to emphasize that when you're in school,
it's not only about the academics, right?
Learn how to communicate with your colleagues,
because that's going to be extremely important
in your professional career.
So, no we're going to show you the hardware
that Dr. Hosamani's flies are going to be living in
and that we're launching this fall
to the International Space Station.
Come check it out.
Okay, so now we're still in the fruit fly lab, and we're going
to talk about the hardware that is used
to satisfy the scientific requirements that were given
to us by Dr. Hosamani and his team.
Now, before we do that, let's talk a little bit
about the International Space Station
and where we'll be located.
The location in the International Space Station
within which our observation system needs to fit
in has already been given to us.
That means we cannot build it in any kind of shape or form.
It needs to fit inside slots
that already exist on the space station.
These slots are the same on the centrifuge, which is right next
to where we're going to be living.
So, the flies go into the observation system.
The observation system goes into the what's called a "bio rack,"
in which they will sit in space.
This is in microgravity.
Right next to it is a centrifuge
that will house also the observation unit and cassettes,
and the whole thing will spin.
The reason it's spinning is that it's going
to impose an artificial gravity, like we have
on Earth, to the flies.
Okay, so now that we know how we're housed
on the International Space Station,
let's talk about the constraints for our hardware.
The first constraint is that we have
to reuse the house of the flies.
This cassette is where the flies will be living for the duration
of their mission in space.
This cassette was flown on the space shuttle in 2006,
and one of the constraints was that you need
to reuse the same hardware.
This blue tray you find in here is actually the food
for the flies.
And that's important
for an additional constraint we'll talk about in a bit.
So, we need to build a unit that houses this same cassette
on the International Space Station, satisfying one
of the scientific requirements given to us by the team.
That is, they want to monitor the behavior
of the flies in space.
That means we need a camera.
And if you put this inside a box with a camera,
it's not going to work very well.
Why? Because there are no lights.
So we want to put lights in there as well,
but let's be smart about it.
Let's install lights that simulate the day-night cycles
that the fly would live through if they were on Earth.
That's called the circadian cycle.
Now, if you just used a big bulb,
that would stress them out.
And stress is not good.
Otherwise they don't behave the same way as they would on Earth.
So, how do we put this cassette inside a box
with a camera and with a light?
This box then needs to fit inside the racks
that are already existing on the International Space Station.
So the important dimensions are, your box cannot be much wider
than this, and probably only three times
as tall as this cassette.
So another important constraint when working
with biological specimens in space is temperature.
Flies operate best between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius.
And if you leave your lights and camera on for too long,
it's going to get too hot.
So we need to think carefully about what is the timing
of the camera and the lights, such that all
of the scientific requirements are met
and our flies are still alive.
Now, if it gets too hot, one way to dissipate away
that heat is using fans.
So we could put one big, powerful fan
that removes all the heat, and that would be good.
But the problem is, is that we are constrained by the amount
of power that we can use.
That's because the International Space Station uses solar panels.
And there's a lot of really exciting science
and engineering work that's done on the station.
All of them want power.
So there's only a specific amount that is dedicated to us.
So we can't use a lot.
We have to be very judicious in how the power is used.
One concern that we have
on the space station is the astronaut time.
They have a bunch of experiments that they're working on,
so they only have a small amount of time dedicated to ours.
And where they're going to be really helpful for us is
to change the food for the flies, because the food
in this cassette is not enough to sustain the flies
for the entire duration of the mission.
So what we have done is built a piece of hardware, like this.
It's called the "food change-out platform,"
which is specifically designed for the astronauts
to change the food here quickly and efficiently.
The way it works is that you put the cassette inside this
change-out platform, like so,
and then a real change-out platform would have the new fly
cassette in here -- I'm sorry -- the new food in here.
And then the astronauts would use this bar and push
in the new food, and pushing out the old food.
This old food contains larvae of the flies,
which we can then preserve
for scientific examination back here on Earth.
Okay, so now that the astronauts have the new food inside the
cassette, they need to be able to reinstall
that quickly inside the observation system.
So the observation system needs to have a door
that opens efficiently, that we can put the cassette in,
close it, and then you're done.
So no screws, no screwdrivers, nothing.
So that's an important constraint: astronaut time.
Okay, now you know all our constraints that we need
to operate under in order
to satisfy all the scientific requirements
into our engineering hardware.
It's now your turn to design it.
>> Now that you've had a chance
to design your fruit fly observation system,
let's see how that compares
to what the engineers put together that's going
to the International Space Station later this year.
>> All right, so here's what we did.
Let's start with our cassette.
Remember, that's where the flies live,
and we have our food tray inside.
And like any engineering drawing, I need my axes.
Excellent.
And then we were constrained by the shape
of the observation system such that this can go inside,
within which the house of the flies is inserted.
Inside it, we're going to have our camera up there
with a fisheye lens, such that the fisheye lens can capture the
entire resolution, the entire space
of where the flies are living.
Now, in terms of lighting,
remember I told you it was a bit tricky, because we don't want
to put bulbs that shine brightly onto the flies.
So the way that we did it -- let me just re-draw that same image
up there, there's a cassette here --
is that we actually enclosed the bulbs on the underside,
so that they shine upwards.
And put a mirror up here
that then diffuses the light uniformly onto the flies.
So that took quite a bit of trial and error.
And also we have the camera there that's then filming
the flies.
And so in order to have the unit not warm up,
we actually used software to integrate with the hardware
that turns on and off the cameras at times
such that it doesn't get too hot in that.
And that took extensive lab trial, as well,
to see how long we can record before it gets too hot.
The final constraint was to make it efficient and quick
for the astronauts to remove the cassette,
change the food, and put it back.
Do you think we went with a solution
that involves screwdrivers and a bunch of screws?
No, we went with something little.
I'm going to re-draw the same thing in three dimensions,
and you get a better idea of what we did.
Inside we have the cassette.
And so what we did is install hinges with our door
and a little clip there,
on the side of which we installed a stiff rubber band
that's then fixed at the end, such that if you want
to close the unit, you close the door, insert the rubber band.
Your observation system is shut.
To open it, just unhook the rubber band and the thing opens,
and then the cassette can come straight out,
and we can change the food.
This is an efficient and simple way,
and most importantly safe way,
for the astronauts to use our system.
Now, we have completed all our testing
and our experiments can then operate safely
on the International Space Station.
It's safe for the astronauts.
It can survive the shake of the launch vehicle,
as well as the return, and will guarantee the maximum science
from the scientific requirements that were given
to us by the scientists.
We're almost done with all our testing.
We're really excited about the mission.
And we're launching this fall!
Oh, my goodness, this is so cool.
>> Hi, welcome back.
This is my favorite part of the interview, where we get
to learn a little bit more about Sanjoy.
Now, Sanjoy, can you please tell us
about your education background?
>> Sure. So I went to school in Europe,
and in high school I was always really passionate
about space exploration,
but I was not very good at math and physics.
But I really enjoyed it.
So I took my courage and then applied
to engineering school in America.
And I ended up at the Florida Institute of Technology,
which is a small school down in Florida,
right by the Kennedy Space Center,
which was really exciting.
And I got my bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering.
And I realized that the more you know,
the more you actually don't know.
So I went to graduate school at the University of Washington
up in Seattle, where I got my master's degree
in aeronautics and astronautics.
And then I decided to switch more to the scientific field.
So I did my PhD in earth sciences and astrobiology.
And astrobiology is the science of life in space.
And so I came down to NASA Ames doing my postdoc,
doing that type of research.
And then I found this amazing opportunity using my engineering
degrees working with the fruit fly lab.
So now I can do both my science and my engineering,
grouping my passion about life in space.
I essentially have my dream job today.
>> So, Sanjoy that was really great learning
about your background.
Now, is there any advice that you can give
to the high school students to help them enter
into an engineering career field?
>> I would say the most important is follow
your passion.
If you're passionate about engineering field,
even if in high school you have some doubts
about if you can do it or not, just do it,
because passion will drive you to a point where you can excel.
I was not very good at math and physics,
but in engineering school, I did it so much
that you just become good at it.
It's a natural process of learning.
So stay curious.
Read a lot of books.
And then if you can, you can connect with scientists.
You know, NASA scientists and engineers are happy
to answer questions by email.
So if you're passionate about fruit fly lab, for example,
check us out on NASA.gov,
and then find a mission and email us.
And we'll be more than happy to answer your questions.
>> Okay, well, what kind of great advice do you have
for students who actually want to come and work at NASA?
>> That step is usually done in college.
And so the advice that I would give is that,
in addition to focusing on your academic credentials,
meet your peers.
Meet your colleagues.
Connect with your professional societies.
Meet with people who are more advanced
than you and get mentors.
Look at internships.
Internships is the best way to get
into NASA early in your career.
That's where you get to meet the scientists.
That's where you get to meet the engineers.
And with these connections you can then build
to end up at NASA.
Because those scientists and engineers you work
with that will end up in recommendation letters
for graduate school and so on.
So it's a process where not only your academic skills are
important, but also your personal skills are important.
And internships is the best way to promote both.
>> Wow, that's really great advice
for getting the student started out here at NASA.
>> You bet!
We look forward to seeing you all.
>> So if you liked working on this engineering project
and want to pursue an engineering career,
check out some of the NASA design challenges
that we have available.
Also, if you liked learning about the fruit fly experiment,
check us out on www.NASA.gov. ------------------------------ca0734e395cf--