UNITED STATES: On July 14, the SpaceX Dragon supply ship blasted off for the International Space Station (ISS) with scientific instruments to aid in conducting climate science research in orbit.
Science experiments, crew supplies, and other cargo totalling 5,800 pounds are being transported by the Cargo Dragon spacecraft, which was launched by a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
According to a press release from NASA, this is SpaceX’s 25th commercial resupply services flight to the International Space Station.
The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Investigation (EMIT), which was created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, is one of the experiments that the spacecraft is packed with. It measures the mineral makeup of dust in the dry regions of Earth using NASA image spectroscopy technologies.
Mineral dust can be blown into the atmosphere and can travel great distances, affecting the climate, weather, vegetation, and other aspects of Earth.
The EMI will collect photographs for a year and build maps of the mineral make-up of the regions that generate dust on Earth, according to NASA.
In addition, EMIT will aid in mapping, which will help researchers better comprehend the consequences of mineral dust on human populations both now and in the future.
To investigate how microgravity affects the immune system, researchers on board the spacecraft will undertake an Immunosenescence examination within the International Space Station. They will utilise tissue chips to test whether the immune system recovers after the journey and how microgravity affects it while in flight.
While studying the effects of microgravity on metabolic interactions in their experiment, the Dynamics of Microbiomes in Space will also monitor the Earth’s climate and weather systems.
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