BIOLAB - A European Research Facility in the Columbus Module Onboard ISS for Life Science Experiments

Abstract

The BIOLAB is a life science research facility of the European Space Agency (ESA), accommodated in the European COLUMBUS Module of the International Space Station. It is controlled and monitored by the Microgravity User Support Center as Facility Responsible Center at DLR, Cologne, Germany and supported by BIOTESC, Switzerland, on behalf of ESA. BIOLAB features several compartments which are necessary for life science experiments with small animals and plants, tissues, cells and bacteria. Experiment containers with various experimental set-ups can be manufactured according to the experiment needs. If required, the containers can be assembled within the BIOLAB BioGloveBox and/or stored in the two coolers/freezers (ranging from +10°C to -20°C). The experiments can be run in an incubator (+18°C to +40°C) on two centrifuges (0.001g up to 2g) to study the influence of microgravity, hypergravity and/or thresholds on the chosen test system. A video camera system mounted on the rotor platforms enables a regular control of the samples via telemetry from/to ground. Furthermore, a handling mechanism enables the transfer or liquids for, e.g. adding reagents, diluting samples or transferring a sample to the BIOLAB microscope (dark & bright field, phase contrast, up to 40 x magnifications) for in-flight analysis. This handling mechanism can interact by usage different syringes for transferring liquids between stowage compartments and experiment containers. Recently, two rather complex experiments (TRIPLELUX-A and -B) have been successfully performed in BIOLAB, elucidating the immunological effects of space flight conditions on mammalian and mollusk immune cells. The poster presentation will give an overview on BIOLAB features as well as recent and future operation activities.