While the International Space Station (ISS) was traveling in orbit more than 267 miles over the South Atlantic Ocean, the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft autonomously docked to the forward-facing port of the station’s Harmony module at 11:21 a.m. EDT (8:21 a.m. PDT) today (July 16, 2022), with NASA astronauts Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins monitoring operations from the station.

SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft Docks With ISS Delivering Science Benefiting Humans

The Dragon launched on SpaceX’s 25th contracted commercial resupply mission for NASA from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy SpaceX Dragon SpacecraftCenter in Florida at 8:44 p.m. EDT, Thursday, July 14. After Dragon spends about one month attached to the orbiting laboratory, the SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft will return to Earth with cargo and research. Developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) employs NASA imaging spectroscopy technology to measure the mineral composition of dust in Earth’s arid regions. Mineral dust blown into the air can travel significant distances and affect Earth’s climate, weather, vegetation, and more. For instance, an area may be warmed by dust made of dark minerals that absorb sunlight, whereas a region might be cooled by dust made of light-colored minerals.

Air quality, surface conditions including the speed at which snow melts, and ocean phytoplankton health are all impacted by blowing dust. For the duration of a year, the investigation will collect images to generate maps of the mineral composition in the dust-producing regions on Earth. Such mapping could advance our understanding of how mineral dust affects human populations now and in the future. Immunosenescence is the changes in the immune system due to aging. Microgravity causes changes in human immune cells that resemble immunosenescence, but they happen much faster than the actual process of aging on Earth. Sponsored by ISS National Lab, the Immunosenescence investigation, uses tissue chips to study how microgravity affects immune function during flight and whether immune cells recover post-flight. SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft Tissue chips are small devices that contain human cells in a 3D structure, that allow researchers to test how those cells respond to stresses, drugs, and genetic changes.

“Immune aging impacts tissue stem cells and their ability to repair tissues and organs,” says principal investigator Sonja Schrepfer, professor of surgery at University of California San Francisco (UCSF). “Our studies aim to understand critical pathways to prevent and to reverse aging of immune cells.” “Spaceflight conditions enable the study of immune aging that would not be feasible in the lab,” says co-investigator Tobias Deuse, professor of surgery at UCSF. This work could support development of treatments for immune system aging on Earth. The investigation also could support development of methods to protect astronauts during future long-duration spaceflight.

Source: This news is originally published by scitechdaily

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