2007-04-09 | SCIENCE
Lab-On-a-Chip Works Aboard the ISS

"The ability to monitor microorganisms would be especially important on long space voyages, not only to check the health of astronauts but also to monitor electronics and structural materials, which can be corroded or otherwise damaged by certain fungi and bacteria," says Wainwright, the experiment's principal investigator. LOCAD-PTS is designed so that "astronauts can do the analysis onboard with no need to return samples to laboratories on Earth." The device was launched last December 9th on board the space shuttle Discovery, and then stowed aboard ISS until its scheduled experiment timewhich happened to be Saturday night, March 31, Marshall Space Flight Center time. (Remember that time!) Astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams opened the instrument kit bag, assembled LOCAD-PTS, and then took six readings. "The first two readings were controls to show that the instrument was operating correctly," explains Jake Maule, LOCAD-PTS project scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. "First she swabbed her palm, which she had first pressed to handrails and other often-handled surfaces that should have had lots of bacteriaand indeed, we got a strong positive reading," he continues. "Then she sampled some ultraclean water in the instrument that is used to moisten samples, to check that the water was truly cleanand indeed, we got a great negative reading."

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