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fork(2) [soylentnews.org] writes:

      Writing at Space.com [space.com], Sarah Lewin describes some of the scientific cargo that tomorrow's Dragon9 launch will carry to the International Space Station:

SpaceX's ninth commercial cargo mission, launching early Monday (July 18), is lugging a selection of strange science to the International Space Station -- living, beating heart cells, microbes from a nuclear disaster, a tiny DNA sequencer and more.

      [...] One experiment won't take up a lot of space, but it has the potential to be a huge research boon to the orbiting lab -- the space station's first DNA sequencer, which is about the size of a "fun-size Snickers bar," said Sarah Wallace, a microbiologist at Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston.

      [...] The astronauts will also be bringing aboard live heart cells, which they will cultivate for one month to test for changes in their sizes, shapes and beating patterns.

      [...] Another experiment that investigates bone loss in space will test some technology that could potentially save researchers from sending similar experiments aloft: It will compare changes in bone cells that have been flown to space with ones that got the zero-g experience on Earth, levitated magnetically in a microgravity simulator.

      [...] In addition to sending up those heart and bone cells, plus some tomato seeds that will be grown in schools once they return to Earth, the spacecraft is bringing another strange visitor: microbes that emerged after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, located in Ukraine, melted down catastrophically in 1986.

      [...] Researchers are also sending up a demo of a phase-change material heat exchanger, which will test wax-based and water-based substances that can melt and freeze as the temperature outside a spacecraft changes, absorbing excess heat and re-releasing it to keep the craft warm as it orbits in and out of Earth's shadow, going from blazing heat to chilling cold. They're also testing a receiver that will track ships on the ocean, computer processors to stick outside the station and check for radiation-related errors, and a more efficient solar cell.

      The photo of the DNA sequencer shows that it really does resemble a "fun-size Snickers bar", though with two layers!

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