Journey Through the Stars: Insights from NASA's STAR program.

Kirk Jensen

With the arrival of World Space Week (October 4-10), I thought it would be a good time to give everyone an update on the NASA STAR course that I am participating in over the next 5 months. The STAR course was put together by NASA to offer intense training in fundamental space biology and in how to conceive and conduct biological/biomedical research projects in space. The course participants are selected through a competitive application process and consists of 30 senior- and postdoctoral-level scientists of at least 8 different nationalities. This worldwide representation provides a difficulty for the online course, as there is no ideal time for all participants. Unfortunately for those of us in this part of the world each session is in the middle of the night!

After an initial lecture introducing both the primary course instructors and the syllabus, the next several lectures have introduced many of the major space biology research programs that are ongoing, most all of which is conducted through experiments launched to the International Space Station (ISS). Some of the most important programs are devoted to understanding how to grow plants in a microgravity environment, and how to do so to meet the nutritional needs of astronauts who may one day spend months in space on missions to Mars. A critical concern for both plants and people on deep-space missions is exposure to so-called ‘galactic’ radiation. Exposure to this high-energy radiation over the timeframe of a Mars mission is likely to have significant consequences on human health, and many earth-based studies using simulated galactic radiation are underway to investigate ways to mitigate this exposure.

One real eye-opener for me (and I suspect many of the participants) is the amount of “engineering’ work that is necessary to construct and carry out even the most basic biological research on the ISS. Even a relatively simple experiment, say assessing the effects of microgravity on the growth of cells in a culture flask, requires custom (and lightweight!) culture chambers, methods to refresh the culture media in microgravity, methods to heat and provide oxygen and carbon dioxide to the system, an so on. In addition, an entire logistics system must be developed to allow the complete experimental ‘package’ to survive lift-off, transfers from and back to spacecraft, and their eventual return to earth and to the earth-based laboratory running the experiment. Indeed, there is an entire industry devoted to this engineering work, and any successful space research requires partnering with these experts from the very initial design phase of an experiment.

The STAR course runs through February of 2024, and I’m sure I will have many more interesting details to report by the end of the course!

Follow the link if you would like to learn more about NASA’s STAR Program | Science Mission Directorate.