Payload

• Download One Page Technical Overview

Environmental Management

The habitat will provide a comfortable living environment for our mice to live. The interior structure has been specially designed to avoid injury and minimize undue stress to the animals. An automated food and water supply will provide free access to nutrition and fluids, while preventing leakage and controlling pathogens. One-way air circulation will disperse contaminants, preventing buildup, and transfer contaminated air the air revitalization loop; this processing system will replace oxygen and nitrogen lost through leakage and metabolism, and remove carbon dioxide, trace contaminants, and particulates from the air stream. Below the cabin, a waste management system will receive wastes from the living area, treat them to deter decomposition, and store them for later analysis. Overall, the payload module will manage external disturbances to stabilize the environment, controlling noise, vibration, temperature, and humidity within the living area.

Experimental Control

In order to conduct valid experiments, the payload module must ensure homogeneity between the different habitat environments, including thermal and vibrational disturbances. Furthermore, it must provide a mechanism to duplicate as many environmental variables as possible in ground controls; sensor arrays will thus provide environmental data telemetry to mission control, whereupon ground control modules will simulate the actual spaceflight environment in control experimental groups. Some parameters cannot be duplicated: in particular, Coriolis and centripetal accelerations caused by the rotating environment will be much greater in flight than in Earth-gravity controls. However, the payload module will seek to minimize the effects of these confounding variables.

Data Collection

Though the mission's most revealing studies will be conducted after the payload has returned to Earth, onboard data collection is of supreme importance to fulfilling scientific objectives. In-flight data will enable us to watch the process of adaptation to partial gravity over time, a crucial piece of the physiological puzzle, as well as monitoring animal health and welfare during the mission. In addition, data downlinked in flight may be our sole repository of results in case of reentry failure. Data systems will be designed to support the primary science objectives: bone, muscle, and neurovestibular adaptations. Some possibilities include: (1) video footage, providing data on general health, behavioral, and vestibular studies; (2) urine analysis, tracing biomarkers of bone and proteinmetabolism; and (3) locomotion analysis, using existing video algorithms to study muscular and motor control changes by observing animal movement.

Spacecraft Integration

Clearly, the mass, bulk, and energy consumption of the payload drives the magnitude of all other orbital systems. Hence, minimizing the impact of payload systems is key to keeping the mission within the desired constraints. The payload must also provide structural and electronic interfaces to the rest of the spacecraft system. In particular, these include: a separation system for reentry jettison from the carrier bus; a symmetric and predictable mass distribution to allow for stable reentry; data transfer to and from the command, control, and communications systems; and structural integration with the reentry vehicle.

Atmospherics

We are integrating a full life support system with the existing cage design. Our work involves filtering ammonia and carbon dioxide while controlling humidity.

Thermal

We are conducting tests on models to determine the most power-efficient method of cooling the interior of the satellite using our system of fan and thermoelectric cooler units (TECs) that will be used. We are determining what wattage the fans and the TECs should run at to cool the satellite most effectively.

Food Bars

This team is testing NASA rodent foodbars to see if they will hold up for the five-week mission or if we will need to employ a method of preservation. We are also conducting mechanical tests with the foodbars to see if they remain affixed to the walls (where they will be for the mission) under launch conditions.

Video Systems

We are polishing our computer algorithms for identifying mouse behavior from video. Our efforts are now focused on the video hardware, including the camera and lighting, to make sure it meets our standards and power limits.

Other Teams: Science  |  Payload  |  Systems  |  Bus  |  Entry, Decent, & Landing

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