Shuttle astronaut, cargo have CU ties

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published March 11, 2008 at 7:02 a.m.
Updated March 11, 2008 at 11:33 p.m.

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Takao Doi

When the space shuttle Endeavour blasted into space early Tuesday, it was carrying a former University of Colorado researcher, along with a medical payload and two experiments designed at CU.

Takao Doi, a former CU postdoctoral researcher and aerospace engineering professor, is part of a 16-day mission to the international space station.

Doi is one of 17 CU alumni who have flown on NASA missions. He works for the Japanese space agency and previously flew on Columbia's 1997 mission.

Another key CU connection to the space flight is the biomedical payload that will conduct four experiments on the effects of space flight.

The payload was designed and developed by CU-Boulder's BioServe Space Technologies center. The experiments themselves were designed at Arizona State University, Montana State University, and the University of Texas at Galveston.

The experiments will analyze the effects of spaceflight on growth rates, drug resistance, proneness to disease and gene expression. It won't monitor the astronauts, but strains of salmonella, pneumonia, yeast and a common lung bacteria, said Louis Stodieck, BioServe's director.

The experiments will fly aboard the shuttle in specially designed space test tubes that process fluids, Stodieck said. The astronauts will control the experiments using hand cranks - first, mixing fluids to trigger cell growth, and later terminating cell growth.

The results will be crucial in understanding the threats of pathogens on long-term missions to explore the moon and Mars, Stodieck said.

"They also could help biomedical researchers find new ways to prevent and control infectious diseases on Earth," he said.

BioServe also will deliver two experiments for middle schools and high schools.

One is a study of seed germination and plant development, and the other is a silicate crystal garden, said Stefanie Countryman, BioServe's coordinator of education outreach.

The crystal garden experiment will examine the growth of metallic salts in space. Among other education uses, it will be linked to a Web-based education program in Detroit.

The other experiment will see how tomato seeds sprout and grow in space.

Long-lasting missions in the future may need to have the capacity to grow vegetables on board spacecraft. The experiment also could help Earth-bound gardeners develop heartier tomatoes.

The experiments will be in a suitcase-sized device, also developed at CU, that has been launched on more than a dozen NASA space shuttle missions. When the shuttle docks with the space station, the plant and garden experiments will be transferred to two BioServe units already aboard the station.

Endeavour's major mission will be to remodel and make additions to the space station. Doi and the other astronauts will install a Japanese research module and deliver a two-armed Canadian robot module to the orbiting station.

scanlon@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2897

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