Affordable Access To Space

Silicon Valley Space Center flew its Atmospheric Multi-Spectral Explorer (AMSE), a compact infrared spectrometer for measuring atmospheric absorption and emission profiles at near and mid-infrared wavelengths. This work was funded by the NASA Flight Opportunities Program.

Automating Radiation Measurements for Aerospace Safety (ARMAS) from Space Environment Technologies measures ionizing radiation throughout the suborbital trajectory to assist in development of forecasts and decision tools for flight risk reduction. NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program funded the payload.

The University of North Dakota “Dinonauts” student team was awarded a flight by the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research to investigate enzyme kinetics of bioluminescence in dinoflagellates.

Investigators from the University of Florida are adopting fluorescent and thermal imaging instrumentation developed for biological studies on the Shuttle and ISS to more rapid suborbital applications. The Biological Imaging in Suborbital Spaceflight (BISS) payload is an evolution of technologies previously flown on NS-10 and NS-12.

Thai aerospace company muSpace Corp flew musical notes from Thai band Bodyslam translated into double-stranded DNA.

The Box of Rocks Experiment II (BORE II) payload tested a novel system for sampling regolith and anchoring to asteroids and other low-gravity destinations. The goal of this system is to advance exploration and support in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). This work was funded by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program.

The Collisions Into Dust Experiment (COLLIDE) from the University of Central Florida aimed to understand how dust particles react after surface contact during exploration missions to places such as the Moon, Mars and asteroids.

Columbia University undergraduate students advised by former NASA astronaut Dr. Michael Massimino designed and built an educational payload to study the acute impacts of microgravity environments on cell biology. This is crucial for humans living and working in space.

Condensed Droplet Experiment for NASA in Sub-Orbital Spaceflight (ConDENSS) from Purdue University, with funding through NASA Flight Opportunities Program, examined the behavior of small droplets of water in order to support the development of small and efficient heat transfer systems for spaceflight. These systems, called phase change heat transfer systems, provide more uniform surface temperatures and higher power capacities.

The Collection of Regolith Experiment (CORE) from University of Central Florida addresses the unique challenge of collecting and analyzing material samples in microgravity.

The Cell Research Experiment In Microgravity (CRExIM) payload was a multidisciplinary effort between students and faculty in Embry-Riddle’s Spaceflight Operations degree program and Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering departments, along with teams from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and the Medical University of South Carolina, in partnership with Arete STEM. The experiment studied how microgravity impacts the cellular processes of T-cells, which develop from STEM cells in the bone marrow and are key to immune system function.

The Daphnia experiment was developed by the University of Bayreuth with ZARM (The Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity at the University of Bremen) and funding from German space agency, DLR. The payload investigated the effects of microgravity on gene expression and the cytoskeleton of daphnia water fleas. This small invertebrate species is popular in the design of future bioregenerative life support systems for human space exploration.

This two-part payload was a partnership with DreamUp and a collaboration across nearly 500 K-8 students at DCS Montessori Middle School (Castle Pines, CO). The first part included an Arduino Nano microcontroller with a sensor package designed and programmed by the students to learn more about the environment inside the Crew Capsule. The second part contained a school-wide art project that all students participated in. Upon landing, the data from the experiment was analyzed and the art returned to the students and shared with the community.

Hellenic Association of Physicists (EEF) awarded spaceflights to three high school teams in Greece to study the effects of spaceflight on foams, emulsions, mass measurements, and artificial gravity systems.

Hellenic Association of Physicists (EEF) awarded spaceflights to three high school teams in Greece to study the effects of spaceflight on foams, emulsions, mass measurements, and artificial gravity systems.

Hellenic Association of Physicists (EEF) awarded spaceflights to three high school teams in Greece to study the effects of spaceflight on foams, emulsions, mass measurements, and artificial gravity systems.

Expression of Genes in Tumor Growth (EGTG) was developed by Embry-Riddle University-Daytona Beach, Grand Canyon University and Thermo Fisher Scientific in partnership with Arete STEM. This payload focused on studying the effect of microgravity exposure on the expression of genes that play a role in tumor growth. Two modified flasks were seeded with osteosarcoma cells. Syringes containing RNAlater for cell fixation were attached to each flask and their contents were deployed just before the onset of microgravity (in the case of the experimental control flask) and just after its completion (in the case of the experimental test flask). Post-mission, the samples were analyzed via reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to determine how the expression of the genes has changed.

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab flew the Electromagnetic Field experiment to observe and collect data on the naturally occurring electromagnetic fields both inside and outside New Shepard during the launch. The team used the success of this experiment to determine how global measurements of the Earth’s electromagnetic field can be conducted in the future.

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab flew Environment Monitoring Suite on Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicle (EMSS). This integrated instrument suite monitored magnetic field and GPS observations during pre-flight, flight and post-flight operations. Such experiments will also demonstrate the feasibility of making future measurements to assess the influence of global change on the Earth’s complex electrical environment. This work was funded by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program.

The EQUIPAGE experiment was developed by Otto von Guericke University (Magdeburg, Germany) with ZARM (The Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity at the University of Bremen) and funding from German space agency, DLR. EQUIPAGE studied the motion of macroscopic rod shaped grains to validate physics models of these systems under microgravity conditions. Such “granular gases” allow researchers to study a unique state far from equilibrium and not possible in normal Earth environments.

The EQUIPAGE experiment was developed by University of Duisburg-Essen with ZARM (The Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity at the University of Bremen) and funding from German space agency, DLR. EUPHORIE used a laser to examine the phenomenon of photophoresis, the interaction of light on solid particles suspended in a gas. As the laser heats one side of such particles, it warms nearby gas molecules and accelerates the particle towards its cooler side. This research has applications to the study of early solar system evolution and meteorite formation.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in collaboration with the University of Maryland, flew the FBMC payload (Flow Boiling in Microgap Coolers). This award-winning payload demonstrated an embedded cooling technology for power-dense spacecraft electronics that operate in a range of gravity environments. NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program funded the payload.

Investigators from the University of Florida adapted technology designed for the ISS to suborbital uses with their experiment, Validating Telemetric Imaging Hardware for Crew-Assisted and Crew-Autonomous Biological Imaging in Suborbital Applications. By recalibrating the way data is collected, the FLEX fluorescence imaging system experiment enabled more biological research on suborbital missions.

MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative unites artists, engineers, scientists, and designers. The group flew several scientific payloads as well as two projects that use zero gravity as a medium for works of art. Floral Cosmonauts explored crystal electro-nucleation in self-assembling silver nitrate dendrite networks.

The Granular Anisotropic Gases (GAGa) payload investigated the statistics of granular gases, dilute collections of solid grains that interact by random collisions. Data from GAGa helped validate existing theoretical models and contribute to understanding the dynamics of related systems like avalanches and cosmic dust clouds. This payload was developed by Otto von Guericke University (Magdeburg, Germany) with end-to-end service provider OLYMPIASPACE (Darmstadt, Germany) and funding from German space agency, DLR.

Designed and built by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, IRIS matures new sensor technologies in preparation for a future flight on the New Shepard booster to measure ultraviolet light at high altitudes. This work was funded by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program.

Eli Pinney Elementary School in Dublin, OH, in collaboration with space educational startup DreamUp, flew young jellyfish to examine their orientation and movement in microgravity.

The LAD-2 payload demonstrated how liquid and gas interface in microgravity. Applications include cryogenic propellant storage and management for in-space propulsion systems. This work was funded by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program.

MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative unites artists, engineers, scientists, and designers. The group flew several scientific payloads, as well as two projects that use zero gravity as a medium for works of art. Living Distance: A Spider-Inspired Robotic Dance in Weightlessness demonstrated a crystalline robotic device that navigates zero gravity, similar to a performance.

MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative unites artists, engineers, scientists, and designers. The group flew several scientific payloads, as well as two projects that use zero gravity as a medium for works of art. Queen Bee Maiden Flight used a custom-designed metabolic support capsule to explore the behavior of bee communities in weightlessness.

MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative unites artists, engineers, scientists, and designers. The group flew several scientific payloads, as well as two projects that use zero gravity as a medium for works of art. Queen Bee Maiden Flight used a custom-designed metabolic support capsule to explore the behavior of bee communities in weightlessness.

Edgar Medina, a Texas-based abstract artist, partnered with Blue Origin and Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital to connect his local city of Houston to the region's long history of space exploration. Entitled “Mission Art,” the collaboration took strips of the designs crafted by Medina and patients to space, where the art was subject to capsule movement, atmospheric pressure and microgravity freedom. Following the launch, Medina reassembled the artwork during a live painting exhibit at the Media Art Xploration (MAX) Space Festival, where it was later auctioned off in support of future MAX events.

µG-LilyPond is an autonomous plant growth system for use in microgravity developed by Space Lab Technologies. The ultimate goal is to produce highly nutritious, aquatic plants to supplement a crew’s diet. During this flight, the µG-LilyPond payload demonstrated thin film hydroponics (growth of plants without soil) using passive capillary flow. The payload was developed in collaboration with the University of Colorado at Boulder. NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) provided funding for payload development and flight aboard New Shepard through the SBIR/STTR and Flight Opportunities programs.

The MIT-Portugal Program leveraged international student collaborations to design and fly an experiment on the effects of altered gravity on the photosynthesis and survival of microorganisms.

The Carthage College Modal Propellant Gauging (MPG) experiments were a joint effort with the NASA Kennedy Space Center Cryogenics Laboratory to demonstrate a way to measure fuel levels in microgravity by using sound waves.

The first of Blue Origin’s New Glenn customers to purchase a slot on New Shepard, Bangkok-based mu Space’s payload included an assortment of scientific and medical items, several textile materials they plan to use on their future spacesuit and apparel, and other special articles for their community partners.

Blue Origin partnered with rock band OK Go and the University of St. Thomas Playful Learning Lab on a contest called Art in Space, giving high school and middle school students a chance to send their own creative expressions to space on New Shepard. Dark Origin, developed by students from New York, was a kinetic art project with floating bits of “space debris” attaching themselves to a magnetized wire-art sculpture, mimicking the process that led to the formation of the early solar system.

Blue Origin partnered with rock band OK Go and the University of St. Thomas Playful Learning Lab on a contest called Art in Space, giving high school and middle school students a chance to send their own creative expressions to space on New Shepard. This project, suggested by a team of students in Utah, translated cosmic radiation dosimetry into a musical composition that was to be played on strings inside the payload.

In collaboration with NASA’s Undergraduate Student Instrumentation Program (USIP), the Ohio State University's OSU-USIP payload used tissue-engineered skeletal and cardiac muscle to conduct studies on contractility and gene expression.

The Schmitt Space Communicator Xperimental (SC1-x) was developed by Solstar with private funding and with support from NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program. The payload demonstrated the first commercial Wi-Fi in space, taking advantage of the Crew Capsule’s high altitude escape to test WiFi access throughout the flight.

NASA Johnson Space Center’s Suborbital Flight Experiment Monitor-2 (SFEM-2) recorded vehicle conditions including cabin pressure, temperature, CO2, acoustic conditions, and acceleration.

Space Cargo Unlimited flew SpaceCU-Alpha, a commercial payload looking at biological experimentation and wine cultivation in space.

MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative unites artists, engineers, scientists, and designers. The group flew several scientific payloads as well as two projects that use zero gravity as a medium for works of art. Telepresent Drawings in Space used graphite to create a drawing that could only have been made in space.

MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative unites artists, engineers, scientists, and designers. The group flew several scientific payloads, as well as two projects that use zero gravity as a medium for works of art. TESSERAE explored a novel self-assembling space architecture.

Controlled Dynamics' Vibration Isolation Platform (VIP) aimed to separate payloads from the normally occurring vibrations experienced during spaceflight. The payload allowed researchers to have a clearer understanding of microgravity’s effects on their research results.

Zero-Gravity Glow Experiment (ZGGE) was a partnership between Purdue University, Cumberland Elementary School in West Lafayette, IN., and Arete STEM. ZGGE was inspired by a second grade classroom’s question: “Can fireflies light up in space?” The payload operated by mixing the appropriate chemicals during the weightless coast period of the vehicle’s mission and observing the response with a miniature video camera.

Purdue University’s payload looked at Zero-Gravity Green Propellant Management Technology (ZGPMT), which aims to help advance the use of a safer and more environmentally friendly rocket propellant by better understanding the fuel’s behavior in microgravity.