Blood Vessel Printing, Cancer Research, and Spacewalk Preps Keep Crew Busy

Expedition 75 spent Tuesday advancing human health on and off the Earth with 3D bioprinting, cancer research, and exercise studies. Meanwhile, spacewalk preparations continue aboard the International Space Station to augment its power generation system.

Microgravity enables researchers to observe phenomena difficult or impossible to achieve in Earth's gravity environment. For example, vascular cells bioprinted in weightlessness are vastly superior to those manufactured on Earth and allows researchers to learn how to engineer human tissues and organs for patient treatments.

NASA flight engineers Luke Delaney and Jessica Watkins participated in a cellular printing study on Tuesday using the Columbus laboratory module's BioFabrication Facility. Vascular cell samples were removed from an incubator, processed with bioink for printing into blood vessels, then stowed in a science freezer for preservation.

Afterward, Delaney turned his attention to a cancer study to observe how cancer cells grow and respond to treatments in weightlessness. Delaney processed tumor samples inside the Kibo laboratory module's Life Science Glovebox then preserved the specimens for analysis back on Earth. Understanding how tumor cells behave in space may help doctors identify the cellular and genetic influences of cancer cells and possibly develop more efficient and targeted therapies.

Flight engineer Joshua Kutryk of CSA (Canadian Space Agency) explored how the body responds to exercising in the weightless environment of a spacecraft. Kutryk worked out on the Tranquility module's advanced resistive exercise device that mimics the inertial forces generated when lifting free weights on Earth. A motion capture system recorded his movements as he exercised while wearing markers from his hips to his feet. Insights may lead to more effective space workouts and possibly advance sports technology on Earth.

NASA flight engineer Anil Menon worked in the Quest airlock configuring tools and inspecting tethers that he and Kutryk will use during two spacewalks scheduled for Oct. 29 and Nov. 5. The duo will install roll-out solar arrays on the orbital outpost's truss structure during both spacewalks finalizing the upgrades to the space station's power generation system. NASA's Low Earth Orbit Program operations integration manager Gaurang Patel said during a spacewalk preview news conference on Tuesday, the roll-out solar arrays "increase our power generation capability up to 30 percent."

Station commander Pyotr Dubrov pointed a camera out a window on the Zvezda service module toward Earth to automatically photograph African landmarks in multiple wavelengths. Roscosmos flight engineer Sergey Teteryatnikov trained on a laptop to computer to operate the European robotic arm. Roscosmos flight engineer Anna Kikina transferred water stowed aboard a Progress 96 cargo spacecraft into station water tanks.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog , @space_stationon X, as well as the ISS Facebookand ISS Instagram accounts.

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