Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams tested a miniature biological laboratory for the first time onboard the International Space Station.
HOUSTON: Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams tested a miniature biological laboratory for the first time onboard the International Space Station.
The lab called LOCAD-PTS (short for Lab-On-a-Chip Application Development-Portable Test System), the mini-lab detects the presence of bacteria or fungi on the surfaces of a spacecraft far more rapidly than standard methods of culturing. LOCAD-PTS was launched December 9, 2006, aboard NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery. It was not used until Saturday, March 31, 2007, when it was scheduled to be opened.
At that time, Sunita assembled the LOCAD-PTS components. She took several readings. The first two were to verify that the instrument was working properly. Then, she took readings of various objects around the cabin that should contain bacteria.
The instrument showed a strong positive reading that, indeed, bacteria were being detected. Next, she took samples of ultra-clean water, which showed negative readings.
The cleaner the samples, the longer it took LOCAD-PTS to analyse. For instance, it took about 12 minutes to analyse the nearly pure water, while only a couple of minutes for dirtier things.
“The cleaner the sample, the longer the analysis takes,” Wainwright says. “Because this site was pretty clean, it took about 12 minutes, but dirty samples can take as little as a couple of minutes.”
It was during the wait that Williams must have noted the time. Although it was 10:20 PM Central Daylight Time at Marshall in Huntsville, Alabama, where all the LOCAD-PTS scientists were anxiously watching television monitors, it was actually past midnight on April one, GMT, the time zone used by ISS.
Sunita said, “Ah, this last set of readings for LOCAD-PTS looks a bit strange,’” Maule recalls. “After a pause of about five seconds, she exclaimed, ‘Happy April Fools’ Day! The numbers are just fine!’” The hand-held LOCAD-PTS device will be important when space travellers take long journeys into space.
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