Fluidic Solutions for In Situ Sample Preparation in Microgravity

Safe successful fluids handling is essential aboard low-g spacecraft for BPS experiments, life support equipment, plant and animal habitats, fuels, coolants, etc. Due to the unfamiliar, unearthly, and unforgiving low-g environment, special engineering considerations must be made to account for the large length scale capillary flows that occur when the role of gravity is greatly diminished.nbsp;nbsp;Unfortunately, the fundamental and applied challenges governing such lsquo;capillary fluidicsrsquo; phenomena are significant, compounded by our limited access to prolonged low-g environments, and our less than stellar success at performing seemingly simple tasksmdash;like those required for routine wet lab operations, such as in situ sample preparation in the orbiting laboratory of the ISS. Though NASA faces numerous low-g fluids challenges relating to sample preparation, there is hope to find solutions via the new state-of-the-art. Following our Phase I survey of the BPS community, we focus on a down-selected list of lsquo;challenge problemsrsquo; of cross-cutting value to NASA and the commercial aerospace community. To stakeholder lsquo;requirements,rsquo; we then design, build, and demonstrate 12 prototypes of varied complexity addressing sample prep unit operations: resealable vials, low-g well plates, pipetting workstations, custom microscope slides, graduated bubble separating syringes, degassing substrates, passive liquid and bubble separators, and more. Our Phase II goal is to bring these devices and more to flight fidelity, greatly accelerating the establishment of a kit of plumbing parts (solutions) for safe routine wet lab activities aboard spacecraft.