Tag Archives: wetenschap

23 new radiation sensors for the Space Station

Kibo In the past weeks I have been doing many ‘life science’ experiments investigating human behaviour in weightlessness. I worked with the Fluid Science Laboratory examining liquids in space. I also conducted maintenance work and small repairs. Just like a laboratory on Earth, maintenance and repair is important to keep everything running smoothly. Some experiments on the Station run autonomously. These ‘boxes’ can be controlled from Earth. Astronauts unpack the hardware from cargo ships, install the equipment and turn it on or off. If problems occur we see how we can solve them together with ground control. I help the scientists on Earth. They design and build the experiments. I am here to make sure the experiments can be run in microgravity. (more...)

On a diet for international science

Op dieet The last few weeks I was on a diet. Not that I am too fat, but for some experiments I need to follow a strict diet, such as for the European SOLO experiment. Twice Dan Burbank and I ate a special diet for five days. The experiment is about salt and is called SOLO (SOdium LOad in microgravity). Dan and I eat a diet with normal salt content for a week (11.5 grams a day), and a diet with low salt the other week (2,9 grams a day). Scientists can work out the influence of salt on our bones based on the results. In space you lose bone mass very quickly. You could say that we ‘age’ very quickly. This aspect of space benefits research on Earth. Many old people suffer from bone decalcification (osteoporosis). This experiment might help people on Earth with this disease. We now know that eating more salt increases the acid content in the human body and this might increase bone loss. ESA’s SOLO experiment will investigate whether eating less salt decreases the effects of bone loss. Read on...