Astronaut Sunita Williams tests Lab-On-a-Chip

William Atkins
Saturday, 07 April 2007 04:09

Science - Space

A miniature biological laboratory called LOCAD-PTS (Lab-On-a-Chip Application Development—Portable Test System) successfully completed an important first test on the Space Station for future extended exploratory journeys into space.              

LOCAD-PTS was launched December 9, 2006, aboard NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery. It was not used until Saturday, March 31, 2007, when it was scheduled to be opened.

At that time, U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams assembled the LOCAD-PTS components. She took several readings. The first two were to verify that the instrument was working properly. Then, she took readings of various objects around the cabin that should contain bacteria. The instrument showed a strong positive reading that, indeed, bacteria were being detected. Next, she took samples of ultra-clean water, which showed negative readings.

The cleaner the samples, the longer it took LOCAD-PTS to analyze. For instance, it took about 12 minutes to analyze the nearly pure water, while only a couple of minutes for dirtier things.

The hand-held LOCAD-PTS device will be important when space travelers take long journeys into space, such as the first long mission to the planet Mars. The device will rapidly detect the presence of biological and chemical substances such as bacteria or fungi on the surfaces of a spacecraft, such as humans, electronics, and structural materials, in a much faster way than is currently used.

Basically, astronauts will swab surfaces, insert the swabbed materials to the LOCAD-PTS, and (generally) within 15 minutes receive a result on a display screen. More importantly, the samples will not need to be sent back to the Earth for analysis. And, hours will not be needed to get results. Instead, the device will quickly and easily protect the safety and health of astronauts unable to quickly return to the Earth, as on extended stays on the Moon.

Over the next few months the LOCAD-PTS method will be tested against various common culture methods in order to see how all methods compare when detecting and analyzing bacteria.

A more-advanced version of LOCAD-PTS will launch onboard Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-123 scheduled now for its launch on December 2007 to the International Space Station. Future versions will be developed to detect hydrazine, ammonia, and other chemical substances that may harm astronauts and blood, saliva, and urine proteins that may indicate a health problem in astronauts.

More information about “Lab-on-a-Chip Application Development-Portable Test System (LOCAD-PTS)” is found on the NASA Web site: http://exploration.nasa.gov/programs/station/LOCAD-PTS.html.