A full suite of human health research kept the Expedition 73 crew busy Tuesday aboard the International Space Station.
Current station commander Takuya Onishi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) started the day powering on and setting up the Ultrasound 2 device to assist NASA Flight Engineer Jonny Kim with an eye exam that looks at optic nerve health. Following the exam, Kim donned a lightweight thigh cuff while Onishi guided a cardiovascular ultrasound scan to measure Kim’s vision and blood flow changes. This ongoing health research is helping scientists better understand if wearing a device like the thigh cuff could prevent upward blood and fluid shifts.
Onishi then moved on to collect and process water samples from the Potable Water Dispenser before continuing to unpack a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft which arrived to the station April 22. Meanwhile, Kim photographed tomato plants for a space agricultural study before assisting NASA Flight Engineer Anne McClain with additional health research.
McClain spent her morning on Dragon cargo operations then focused the rest of her day on a collection of human health research for the CIPHER study, or the Complement of Integrated Protocols for Human Exploration Research. CIPHER takes a full-body approach to investigate how multiple systems of the body react to spaceflight, which could help prepare future crews on missions to the Moon and beyond. McClain collected biological samples for analysis by ground teams, then received an ultrasound scan guided by Kim that looks at the health of the back of her eye.
In the Columbus Laboratory Module, NASA Flight Engineer Nichole Ayers set up and donned the Bio-Monitor, a garment and headband she’ll wear for the next 48 hours to investigate the effect of microgravity on the cardiovascular system. Later on, she removed and replaced cable arm ropes on the orbital lab’s Advanced Resistive Exercise Device before moving on to Dragon cargo operations.
In the Roscosmos segment, Flight Engineer Alexey Zubritsky took inventory of storage areas then continued yesterday’s work with Flight Engineer Sergey Ryzhikov to install hardware for an experiment that will examine the station’s aerodynamic force. Their colleague, Flight Engineer Kirill Peskov, spent the day inventorying a variety of items including hygiene products, food, and more.
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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