International Space Station United States On-orbit Segment Potable Water Dispenser On-orbit Functionality vs. Design

INTRODUCTION: In the 1990s, Canada, member states of the European Space Agency, Japan, the Russian Federation, and the United States entered into an international agreement Concerning Cooperation on the Civil International Space Station. Among the many unique infrastructure challenges, partners were to develop a comprehensive international medical system and related processes to enable crew medical certification and medical support for all phases of missions, in a framework to support a multilateral space program of unprecedented size, scope, and degree of integration. During the Shuttle/Mir Program, physicians and specialized experts from the United States and Russia studied prototype systems and developed and operated collaborative mechanisms. The 1998 NASA Memoranda of Understanding with each of the other four partners established the Multilateral Medial Policy Board, the Multilateral Space Medicine Board, and the Multilateral Medical Operations Panel as medical authority bodies to ensure International Space Station (ISS) crew health and performance. Since 1998, the medical system of the ISS Program has ensured health and excellent performance of the international crewsan essential prerequisite for the construction and operation of the ISSand prevented mission-impacting medical events and adverse health outcomes. As the ISS is completing its second decade of crewed operation, it is prudent to appraise its established medical framework for its utility moving forward in new space exploration initiatives. Not only the ISS Program participants, but other nations and space agencies as well, concomitant with commercial endeavors in human spaceflight, can benefit from this evidence for future human exploration programs.Doarn CR, Polk JD, Grigoriev A, Comtois J-M, Shimada K, Weerts G, Dervay JP, Taddeo TA, Sargsyan A. A framework for multinational medical support for the International Space Station: a model for exploration. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2021; 92(2):129134.

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International Space Station United States Orbital Segment Oxygen Generation System On-orbit Operational Experience

SAE International Journal of Aerospace ◽

10.4271/2008-01-1962 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 15-24 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Robert J. Erickson ◽

John Howe ◽

Galen W. Kulp ◽

Steven P. Van Keuren

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

International Space Station ◽

Space Station ◽

Operational Experience ◽

Generation System ◽

International Space ◽

Oxygen Generation

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Genomic and phenotypic characterization of Burkholderia isolates from the potable water system of the International Space Station

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0227152 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. e0227152 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Aubrie O’Rourke ◽

Michael D. Lee ◽

William C. Nierman ◽

R. Craig Everroad ◽

Chris L. Dupont

Keyword(s):

International Space Station ◽

Potable Water ◽

Space Station ◽

Water System ◽

Phenotypic Characterization ◽

International Space

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American and Japanese Control-Display Stereotypes: Possible Implications for Design of Space Station Systems

Proceedings of the Human Factors Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/154193128803200205 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 32 (2) ◽

pp. 30-34 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Clifford K. Wong ◽

John Lyman

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

International Space Station ◽

Space Station ◽

International Space ◽

Stimulus Response ◽

Long Duration ◽

Weak Stimulus ◽

Strong Control ◽

Display Systems ◽

Japanese Subjects

This study examined the stimulus-response stereotypes of American (United States citizens) and Japanese (Japanese citizens) subjects on the issue of control-display arrangements. Three questions were investigated. First, do Japanese and Americans operators adhere to the same compatibility principles, e.g., clockwise-for-increase, for certain configurations? Second, do the operators show similar or different responses to certain configurations? Third, are there arrangements in which both populations show strong or weak stimulus-response stereotypes? A paper and pencil test that contained 24 different control-display configurations was administered to 58 American subjects and 58 Japanese subjects, all of whom were right-handed. Out of the 24 configurations, only one elicited similar and statistically significant response stereotypes from American and Japanese subjects. The arrangement that did so emphasized that three compatibility principles (clockwise-for-increase, nearness of control-cursor relation, and scale-side) be in agreement with each other. The results provide initial, albeit speculative, guidelines for the design of control-display systems in NASA's international space station. Since multicultural crews will inhabit the space station for long duration missions, control-display designs which elicit common, consistent, and extremely strong control-movement stereotypes from different cultural populations is a necessity.

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Genomic and phenotypic characterization of Burkholderia isolates from the potable water system of the International Space Station

10.1101/753087 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Aubrie O’Rourke ◽

Michael D. Lee ◽

William C. Nierman ◽

Chris L. Dupont

Keyword(s):

International Space Station ◽

Burkholderia Cepacia ◽

Potable Water ◽

Bacterial Load ◽

Space Station ◽

Water System ◽

Phenotypic Characterization ◽

Post Inoculation ◽

International Space ◽

Potential Pathogenicity

AbstractThe opportunistic pathogens Burkholderia cepacia and Burkholderia contaminans, both genomovars of the Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC), are frequently cultured from the potable water system (PWS) of the International Space Station (ISS). Here, we sequenced the genomes and conducted phenotypic assays to characterize these Burkholderia isolates. All recovered isolates of the two species fall within monophyletic clades based on phylogenomic trees of conserved single-copy core genes. Within species, the ISS PWS strains all demonstrate greater than 99% average nucleotide identity (ANI), suggesting that they are of a highly similar genomic lineage and both individually may have stemmed from the two founding clonal strains before diverging into two unique sub strain populations. No evidence for horizontal gene transfer between the populations was observed. Differences between the recovered isolates can be observed at the pangenomic level, particularly within putative plasmids identified within the B. cepacia group. Phenotypically, the ISS-derived B. cepacia isolates generally exhibit a trend of lower rates and shorter duration of macrophage intracellularization compared to the selected terrestrial reference strain (though not significantly), and significantly lower rates of cellular lysis in 7 of the 19 isolates. ISS-derived B. contaminans isolates displayed no difference in rates of macrophage intracellularization compared to the selected reference, though generally increased rates lysis, with 2 of the 5 significantly increased at 12-hours post inoculation. We additionally find that ISS-isolated B. contaminans display hemolytic activity at 37°C not demonstrated by the terrestrial control, and greater antifungal capacity in the more recently collected isolates. Thankfully, the ISS-derived isolates generally exhibit 1-4 times greater sensitivity to common antibiotics used in their clinical treatments. Thus, despite their infection potential, therapeutic treatment should still have efficacy.Author SummaryThe International Space Station (ISS) is a unique built environment due to its isolation and recycling of air and water. Both microbes and astronauts inhabit the ISS, and the potential pathogenicity of the former is of great concern for the safety of the latter. The potable water dispenser (PWD) of the potable water system (PWS) on board the ISS was assembled in a cleanroom facility and then primed on Earth using an extensive process to ensure no gas bubbles existed within the lines that could lock the apparatus upon installation in orbit. The primed system sat dormant for 6 months before installation on the ISS. Microbial surveillance was conducted on the system after installation and the bacterial load was 85 CFU/mL, which exceeded the 50 CFU/mL limits set for ISS potable water. Over a microbial surveillance spanning 4.5 years, numerous strains of the potential pathogen Burkholderia have been isolated from the PWD. Here we sequenced and analyzed the genomes of these strains while also characterizing their potential pathogenicity. The genome analysis indicates it is likely that there were only two strains that were introduced on Earth that have subsequently undergone minimal diverging evolution. These strains retain pathogenicity, but remain susceptible to antibiotics, providing a potential therapeutic intervention in the event of infection.

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The Return of Manned Missions

Mechanical Engineering ◽

10.1115/1.2019-jul3 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 141 (07) ◽

pp. 48-53

Author(s):

Chitra Sethi

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

International Space Station ◽

Space Shuttle ◽

Space Station ◽

The United States ◽

Space Program ◽

Private Companies ◽

International Space ◽

Space Suits ◽

And Training

The United States space program has been without a launch vehicle for human spaceflight since 2011. That was when the space shuttle Atlantis returned on its final flight. Since then, NASA has relied on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to take its astronauts to the International Space Station. However, if all goes to plan this could soon change, as two private companies are working with NASA to launch the first astronauts into orbit. The companies, SpaceX and Boeing, are building crew capsules and rockets, designing space suits, and training astronauts to fly these new vehicles into space.

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