VARIABLE-G FACILITY FOR LIFESAT

THE SPACE BIOLOGY COMMUNITY HAS A WELL DEFINED NEED FOR IN-FLIGHT CENTRIFUGATION FACILITIES TO PROVIDE BOTH EXPERIMENTAL HYPOGRAVITY STIMULATIONS TO TEST SUBJECTS, AND THE NECESSARY 1 G "CONTROL" ENVIRONMENT FOR COMPARISONS WITHMICRO-G DATA. RECENTLY, RENEWED INTEREST HAS DEVELOPED IN FREE-FLYING SATELLITES LAUNCH FROM EXPENDABLE VEHICLES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXPERIMENTS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SUCH OPPORTUNITIES. THIS RESEARCH EFFORT IS DIRECTED TOWARDS DEVELOPING A CENTRIFUGE FACILITY THAT CAN BE ACCOMMODATED WITHIN A SATELLITE SUCH AS LIFESAT, AND THAT CAN PERFORM A WIDE RANGE OF EXPERIMENTAL NEEDS OF SPACE BIOLOGISTS. THE CENTRIFUGE FACILITY WILL PROVIDE AT LEAST TWO INDEPENDANTLY-CONTROLLED ROTORS CAPABLE OF PROVIDING G-FORCEENVIRONMENTS WITHIN THE RANGE ZERO TO SOMEWHAT ABOVE UNIT G,AND HAVE THE CAPABILITY OF PROVIDING SIMULTANEOUS 1 G CONTROL DATA. THE FACILITY WILL HAVE THE ABILITY TO RECORD VIDEO IMAGES OF TEST SPECIMENS ON THE ROTORS, TOGETHER WITH OTHER EXPERIMENTAL AND HOUSEKEEPING DATA. DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS WILL BE DEVELOPED USING INFORMATION DERIVED FROM THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY AND SATELLITE INTERFACE REQUIREMENTS, AND USED TO PREPARE A PRELIMINARY DESIGN. A HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT PLAN WILL BE COMPLETED TO PROVIDE AN OVERVIEW OF HOW AN ENGINEERING PROTOTYPE VERSION OF THE CENTRIFUGE FACILITY WILL BE FABRICATED AND TESTED DURING PHASE II.