International Space Station receives materials for experiments on cancer and space detergent

The Dragon capsule will transport material to the International Space Station (ISS) for a series of scientific tests with a view, among others, to improve the administration of anticancer drugs, and create the first space detergent, according to experts involved in the research.

The Dragon capsule is scheduled to take off on the cusp of a reusable Falcon 9 rocket, both manufactured by the private firm SpaceX, in the early hours of next Tuesday, December 21, from a platform at the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida (USA). .

The resupply mission to orbital laboratory number 24 that NASA and SpaceX will carry out jointly will allow a series of scientific experiments on board the ISS that will allow studying, for example, in the microgravity environment the development of bacteria and the immune system.

Among the tests, the one related to monoclonal antibodies is also highlighted, important to fight against a variety of diseases, including cancer and that in the case of research in the LES will focus on improving immunotherapy based on pembrolizumab.

Scientist Paul Reichert, a researcher at Merck laboratories, expressed the teleconference organized by NASA his hope that other researchers “consider microgravity in their projects” on problems on Earth.

Three new bacteria found aboard the International Space Station

The Dragon ship will also transport materials to the space station for a technology to create a “handheld bioprinter” that could be used to “print” tissue directly into wounds and heal them faster.

The experts Imara Perera and Dave Reed referred for their part to the study they direct, the first of its kind, and which monitors the development of shoots and roots of plants in microgravity, in order to understand the mechanisms by which ” plants perceive and adapt to changes in their environment “.

Other experiments that will be developed in the orbital laboratory will have to do with the search for what may be the first space detergent, which has to do with the goal of reducing the load of future space missions, as said Mark Sivik, director and researcher from the multinational Procter & Gamble (P&G), manufacturers of Tide detergent.

“The study basically wants to see how possible it is to reuse clothes and clothing” in space, he said.

Scientists grow their first radishes on the Space Station

Throughout its 21 years orbiting the planet, the space station has hosted almost 3,000 scientific experiments with researchers from more than a hundred countries, according to NASA, which added that in those more than two decades the ISS has received 249 people from 19 countries.

SpaceX, founded by billionaire Elon Musk, who this week has been named by Time magazine the most influential person of 2021, this year won an exclusive contract with the US space agency to bring US astronauts back to the world. Luna for the first time since 1972. (I)