GT BME/AE Microgravity Team

GT BME/AE Microgravity Team

Dan Buckland – Team Leader

Mike Dorman

NASA RGSFOP

• Allows undergraduate student groups the opportunity to pursue microgravity research

• Student led

• Faculty Advisor

• Free (almost)

Timeline

• Develop Concept/Question• Proposal – What do you want to do?• Acceptance• TEDP – What are you bringing?• Physicals – Are you healthy? (We are here)• Hardware• TRR – What did you bring?• Flight – Are you having fun?• Analysis (Other group is here)• Final Report – What did you learn?

Choosing a Topic

• What can be tested in the environment we are offered?

• What do we want to know?• What is already known (by people we have

access to)?• Are there other people interested in this?• Has it been done before?

– Exactly or Close?• Is it specific enough?• Can we hold most things constant and control

the right variables?

Background Thoughts

• Humans come from Earth• Your body is adapted to Earth• Your body is NOT adapted to space• What is different?

– Bones– Balance– Blood– Buffness– Etc…..

• How does a different gravity affect the cardiovascular system?

• What behaviors are changed?

• What would the effects be on the whole body?

• How can we test it?

What can we look at?

• Blood Chemistry– Chemicals in blood

• Arterial Dilation– Size of the vessels in the body

• Electrical Signals– Pulse, Heart Effort

• Blood Flow– Flow rate and behavior of fluid in the body

Blood Chemistry

• Draw blood before and after

• Compare

• Problems?

Arterial Dilation

• Measurements before and after

• Compare

• Problems?

Electrical Signals

• EKG• Need a volunteer

• Problems?

Blood Flow

• Doppler Effect• Fluids do this too• Use an ultrasonic

Doppler probe

• Problems

Combining Everything

• Blood Chemistry– Higher levels of stress induced chemicals

• Arterial Dilation– Smaller vessels after

• Electrical Signals– Should see correlations between flight mode

and pulse/signals from heart

• Blood Flow– Same

Hypothesis (complicated)

Due to the stress of the variable gravity environment, we expect to find that the brachial arteries will have limited or spastic dilation response to pulsatile flow compared to pre-flight results. The glutathione assay should find heightened levels of glutathione in the blood, as glutathione is a cofactor in the production of antioxidant enzymes. The 8-iso-prostaglandin F2α assay should show higher levels of the compound due to the fact that it is produced by the catalyzed oxidation of arachidonic acid, an antioxidant, and is indicative of vascular inflammation. The elevated levels of glutathione and 8-iso-prostaglandin are indicative of heightened oxidative stress. For all assays, the post flight data should show increased levels of free radical induced stresses.

How we are doing it

Results

• What will happen?

• What can this be used for other than space flight?

• What changes can be made for future versions?

• Other questions?

• http://www.nsbri.org/HumanPhysSpace

• http://www.ae.gatech.edu/~gravity/