The International Space Station as One of The Most Important Areas for Scientists

Introduction

The international space station is a large structure in orbit around Earth that serves as a laboratory and home for astronauts. The ISS is one of the most important scientific structures as it is the only place that currently supports a human crew to perform experiments that cannot be replicated on earth. The ISS has helped us understand more about the human body in space, space medicine, astronomy and meteorology among other things. Projects such as the ISS are extremely important to further our understanding of space and the human body’s behaviour in space.

The international space station was launched on the 20th of November 1998 and has been orbiting the Earth ever since. The ISS roughly costs 150 Billion USD which equates to around 222,128,400,000 AUD. The ISS contains some of the most advanced scientific measuring tools such as the A.S.M or Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and the O.G.S or Oxygen Generator Systemwitch uses electrolysis to separate oxygen and hydrogen atoms from wastewater to be used as breathable oxygen, this lowers the amount of trips required from Earth to the ISS to transport oxygen and is also the reason the ISS can now support 6 crew members rather than 3.

The ISS is contracted to last until 2024 whereas the contractors say it can remain operational until 2028, chances are the ISS will remain in operation as it is the only laboratory that operates in microgravity. The ISS is also receiving a lot of attention from private investors and companies such as SpaceX which could help further fund the life of the ISS, however, chances are the ISS will have to make a controlled landing back into the earth to receive repairs and upgrades.

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer

Some of the most important data coming from the ISS is from the onboard Alpha Magnetic spectrometer. The alpha magnetic spectrometer or A.S.M is a device that measures antimatter in cosmic rays. In April 2013 the ISS’s A.S.M detected particles that support the existence of dark matter. Physicists have suggested that dark matter is made up of WIMP’s (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles), which are believed to be their own antimatter partner particle, whenever two WIMP particles meet they completely annihilate one another witch results in a large electron and a large positron witch is picked up the A.M.S, scientists detected an abundance of positrons which could relate to the theory of dark matter. Since then A.S.M’s implementation in 2011 it has recorded more than 60 Billion cosmic events. The A.M.S has detected billions of electrons and the antimatter counterpart positrons, scientists discovered that the A.M.S is picking up more positrons than electrons and the positrons are not coming from one particular place but form everywhere, which indicates that there is a vast amount of antimatter in space as well as supporting the theory that positrons are formed not from specific places such as pulsars, (which is a highly magnetized witch dwarf or neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation) but by collisions of dark matter particles that we are unable to see when compared to pulsars.

Cancer Treatment

The ISS isn't just used to study space, it is also used to study people and medicine. Due to the ISS’s lack of gravity is a lot easier for astronauts to perform experiments that would normally be impossible to reproduce on Earth. A new drug delivery method was formed on the ISS which involved tiny biodegradable drug-filled balloons being directly injected into a patient's tumour with is far more efficient than flooding the patient's body with the drug and hoping that it eventually reaches the tumour. This research has provided a new more efficient treatment to cancer, the experiments conducted on the ISS have provided a better insight into the conditions and formulas required to create these microcapsules containing a variety of different medications. Some of the uses of these microcapsules include halting the growth of prostate cancer and assisting in deconstructing solid tumours after cryogenic freezing. The research on the ISS has enabled research on ways to reconstruct the experiment on earth such as in the diagram below.

This research is important to us as cancer is one of the biggest health problems facing us today, and finding new ways to treat and cure cancer is of the utmost priority. The research and experiments performed on the ISS relating to this topic have already found better ways for us to treat cancer that we might not have been able to discover without it.

Space’s effect on humans

The ISS serves as the perfect and pretty much only place that humans can go to for extended periods of time to conduct research on spaces' effect on the human body. Some of the research that has come out of the ISS on the topic of humans and how we deal with our new environment of space is quite strange.

Studies show that astronauts are known to lose quite a lot of bone density and muscle mass while onboard the ISS for an extended period of time. Astronauts tend to only lose around 1-2% bone density during their time in space and this is due to the weightlessness of space, as bones no longer have to support the body against gravity bone loss begins to occur, this is the same for muscles as you aren't required to use as many of your muscles in space your muscle density also decreases as they become unused.

Another study that comes from NASA shows that 60% of astronauts who spend 6 or more months onboard the ISS start to develop vision problems that continue to get worse after time. Doctors believe that vision problems arise as astronauts' spinal fluid builds up in the brain as gravity is no longer keeping it in place, this fluid builds up pressure behind the eyes and optical nerves flattening the backs of the eyes causing said vision problems. Thanks to these findings NASA has implemented regular eye scans for astronauts to make sure their vision doesn't decay over time. Thankfully this issue isn't permanent and vision returns to normal after astronauts return to earth and a little time passes.

This research is extremely important as we come closer and closer to being able to extend the reach of humans to places like Mars we have to understand how the human body reacts within space so ensure that we don't run into unforeseen events during space travel.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the International Space Station is probably one of the most important areas that scientists can perform experiments as it can be used for research into physics, astronomy and medicine. Without the ISS we wouldn't be able to understand the long term effects on health that spaces causes, it would have been far more difficult to discover new ways to treat disease and even with our current technology it is still basically impossible to have a laboratory that operates in microgravity on earth.

References

1. Ghose, T. (2019). Dark Matter Possibly Found by $2 Billion Space Station Experiment. Retrieved 6 October 2019, from https://www.space.com/20490-dark-matter-discovery-space-experiment.html
2. Science Experiments on the International Space Station - Tested.com. (2019). Retrieved 7 October 2019, from https://www.tested.com/science/space/456617-science-experiments-international-space-station/
3. SciShow. (2015). 3 Big Discoveries Made by the International Space Station [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5ceKXK6Kdk
4. Space experts find dark matter clues. (2019). Retrieved 6 October 2019, from https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-22016504
5. Year in Review - Part 3: ISS makes new discoveries about living in space - NASASpaceFlight.com. (2019). Retrieved 15 October 2019, from https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/12/year-in-review-p3-iss-new-discoveries-living-space/