SPACEPHARMA’S SATELLITES FOR MICROGRAVITY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Many chemical and biological processes are affected by the gravity field and proceed differently in micro-gravity environment. Going to orbit is the only means of providing a micro-gravity environment for any significant length of time. Space Pharma provides microgravity laboratories on its free-flying family of 3U and 6U DIDO CubeSats, enabling the mixing of fluids and the visual observation of the results using a light microscope and a spectrometer. The laboratory is suitable for chemical and biochemical reactions to study colloidal systems, self-assembly of polymers and macromolecules, bacterial growth rate, antibiotic effect and more.

The DIDO-3 satellite carries the SPMG-2 laboratory, a sealed system containing all the reagents for the experiments in a liquid-handling system hermetically sealed in an atmospheric box that has controlled temperature and environment. The laboratory also includes a suit of sensors to provide the observations and results reading of the experiments. This satellite platform provides the lab with power for the sensors, liquid handling and environment control, communication, and attitude control for proper function of the communication system and solar panels, and to ensure that no significant centrifugal fields interfere with the micro-gravity environment. The biological and bio-chemical materials involved in the experiments are quite sensitive to extremes of temperature and have severe degradation in their activity when stored for a long time. Due to this, it is important to load the reagents into the lab as late as possible (as close to the launch as possible).