Parabolic flights are one of the most important pillars for research, development, and applications in space. Accordingly, we developed the world’s first non-governmental parabolic flight program using Novespace’s Airbus A310 ZERO-G. Thro...
Background: we aimed at investigating the influence of weightlessness and hypergravity by means of parabolic flight on the levels of the heart failure biomarkers H-FABP, sST2, IL-33, GDF-15, suPAR and Fetuin-A. Methods: 14 healthy volunteers (males:...
Recent discoveries of potential ice particles and ice-cemented regolith on extraterrestrial bodies like the Moon and Mars have opened new opportunities for developing technologies to extract water, facilitating future space missions and activities on...
Rapidly evolving space exploration makes understanding the short- and long- term effects of microgravity on humans, plants, and microorganisms an important task. The ubiquitous presence of the gravitational force has had an influence on the developme...
Calcium (Ca2+) elevation is an essential secondary messenger in many cellular processes, including disease progression and adaptation to external stimuli, e.g., gravitational load. Therefore, mapping and quantifying Ca2+ signaling with a high spatiot...
The high mortality in men with metastatic prostate cancer (PC) establishes the need for diagnostic optimization by new biomarkers. Mindful of the effect of real microgravity on metabolic pathways of carcinogenesis, we attended a parabolic flight (PF)...
Functional studies of human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived cardiomyocytes (hCMs) under different gravity conditions contribute to aerospace medical research. To study the effects of altered gravity on hCMs, we exposed them to acute hyp...
The reduced-gravity environment in space is known to cause an upward shift in body fluids and thus require cardiovascular adaptations in astronauts. In this study, we recorded in rats the neuronal activity in the subthalamic cerebrovasodilator area (...
In the process of tissue engineering, several types of stresses can influence the outcome of tissue regeneration. This outcome can be understood by designing hydrogels that mimic this process and studying how such hydrogel scaffolds and cells behave...
Since the first Apollo mission in 1969, microgravity has been linked to many alterations of astronauts’ physiology, among which immunosuppression, altered inflammation and bone loss represent relevant examples. In the past 40 years, extensive i...
The ability to maintain the body relative to the external environment is important for adaptation to altered gravity. However, the physiological limits for adaptation or the disruption of body orientation are not known. In this study, we analyzed pos...
Measurable changes in electrophysiology have been documented in spaceflight, creating a pathway for disease genesis and progression in astronauts. These electrophysiology changes can be measured using potential difference (PD). A probe to measure PD...
The sensitivity of human immune system cells to gravity changes has been investigated in numerous studies. Human macrophages mediate innate and thus rapid immune defense on the one hand and activate T- and B-cell-based adaptive immune response on the...
This paper investigates altitude control of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) through the elevator. Elevators are flight control surfaces, which control lateral altitude by changing the pitch balance. The angle deflection along with the thrust from p...
Reptiles are a rare model object for space research. However, some reptile species demonstrate effective adaptation to spaceflight conditions. The main scope of this review is a comparative analysis of reptile experimental exposure in weightlessness,...
During a flight, the steel plate attack wing–fuselage of an aircraft is subjected to cyclical thermal stress caused by flight altitude variation that could compromise the functionality of the plate. Thus, it is compulsory after a sequence of fl...
We identify and quantify a seemingly overlook mechanism for energy transfer between adjacent frequency disturbances in the Nonlinear Parabolized Stability Equations method. Physically, this energy transfer results from the finite-bandwidth nature of...
Centrifugal spray deposition forming technology, which is used in the preparation process of near-net-forming billets, not only reduces the macroscopic segregation and refines the microstructures of billets but also has the characteristics of a rapid...
In most mammals, postural soleus muscles are involved in the maintenance of the stability of the body in the gravitational field of Earth. It is well established that immediately after a laboratory rat is exposed to conditions of weightlessness (para...
Concentrated solar power (CSP) plants are increasingly gaining interest as a source of renewable energy. These plants face several technical problems and the inspection of components such as absorber tubes in parabolic trough concentrators (PTC), whi...
Immune system deterioration in space represents a major risk, which has to be mitigated for exploration-class missions into the solar system. Altered gravitational forces have been shown to regulate adaptation processes in cells of the immune system,...
Performance of fine motor tasks during the initial phase of space missions is often compromised by the adaptation to microgravity. Since traditional Earth-based training methods are limited and struggle to replicate these conditions without strict ti...
A theory for crystal nucleation and growth with the recalescence front is developed. The theory is based on the saddle-point technique for evaluating a Laplace-type integral as well as the small parameter method for solving the moving boundary heat t...
Inspired by the flapping wings of seagulls during flight, a new low-cost, magnet-free, bistable piezoelectric energy harvester is proposed to obtain energy from low-frequency vibration and convert it into electrical energy and reduce fatigue damage c...
In this review article, we discuss the current state of knowledge in cancer research under real and simulated microgravity conditions and point out further research directions in this field. Outer space is an extremely hostile environment for human l...
Spodoptera frugiperda, also known as the fall armyworm (FAW), is classified by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as a major agricultural pest. By gaining a more nuanced understanding of the fall armyworm’s courts...
The mechanisms underlying gravity perception in mammalian cells are unknown. We have recently discovered that the transcriptome of cells in the immune system, which is the most affected system during a spaceflight, responds rapidly and broadly to alt...
A mammalian soleus muscle along with other “axial” muscles ensures the stability of the body under the Earth’s gravity. In rat experiments with hindlimb suspension, zero-gravity parabolic flights as well as in human dry immersion st...
TED (Tethered Electromagnetic Docking) is a system proposed by a group of researchers and students of the University of Padova for close rendezvous and docking between spacecraft. It consists in a small tethered probe ejected by the chaser, reaching...
Space travel presents multiple risks to astronauts such as launch, radiation, spacewalks or extravehicular activities, and microgravity. The lungs are composed of a combination of air, blood, and tissue, making it a complex organ system with interact...
Whereby several types of cultured cells are sensitive to gravity, the immune system belongs to the most affected systems during spaceflight. Since reactive oxygen species/reactive nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) are serving as signals of cellular homeosta...
Background light noise is one of the major challenges in the design of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) systems. In this paper, we build a single-beam LiDAR module to investigate the effect of light intensity on the accuracy/precision and success...
Detecting micron-sized particles is an essential task for the analysis of complex plasmas because a large part of the analysis is based on the initially detected positions of the particles. Accordingly, high accuracy in particle detection is desirabl...
This paper describes the TELIAMADE system, a new indoor positioning system based on time-of-flight (TOF) of ultrasonic signal to estimate the distance between a receiver node and a transmitter node. TELIAMADE system consists of a set of wireless node...
This study proposes a genetic algorithm-enhanced dhole optimization algorithm coupled with a long short-term memory network (GA-DOA-LSTM) for dynamic identification of a high bypass ratio separate-flow turbofan engine during acceleration. A component...
Sports robots have become a popular research topic in recent years. For table-tennis robots, ball tracking and trajectory prediction are the most important technologies. Several methods were developed in previous research efforts, and they can be div...
In recent years, there has been a considerable growth in the demand for low-orbit satellites, leading to a need for more flexible and cost-effective launch systems. This study presents a low-cost “carrier-launcher” configuration designed...
The pressing need to safeguard the health of astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) necessitates constant and rigorous microbial monitoring. Recognizing the shortcomings of traditional culture-based methods, NASA is deliberating the...
With the increasing number of spaceflights, it is crucial to understand the changes occurring in human cells exposed to real microgravity (r-µg) conditions. We tested the effect of r-µg on MCF-7 breast cancer cells with the objective to i...
With the commercialization of spaceflight and the exploration of space, it is important to understand the changes occurring in human cells exposed to real microgravity (r-µg) conditions. We examined the influence of r-µg, simulated microg...
Biological testing on the International Space Station (ISS) is necessary in order to monitor the microbial burden and identify risks to crew health. With support from a NASA Phase I Small Business Innovative Research contract, we have developed a com...