GT BME/AE Microgravity Team

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GT BME/AE Microgravity Team

• Dan Buckland Team Leader
• Mike Dorman

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NASA RGSFOP

• Allows undergraduate student groups the
  opportunity to pursue microgravity research
• Student led
• Faculty Advisor
• Free (almost)

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Timeline

• Develop Concept/Question
• Proposal What do you want to do?
• Acceptance
• TEDP What are you bringing?
• Physicals Are you healthy? (We are here)
• Hardware
• TRR What did you bring?
• Flight Are you having fun?
• Analysis (Other group is here)
• Final Report What did you learn?

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Choosing a Topic

• What can be tested in the environment we are
  offered?
• What do we want to know?
• What is already known (by people we have access
  to)?
• Are there other people interested in this?
• Has it been done before?
• Exactly or Close?
• Is it specific enough?
• Can we hold most things constant and control the
  right variables?

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Background Thoughts

• Humans come from Earth
• Your body is adapted to Earth
• Your body is NOT adapted to space
• What is different?
• Bones
• Balance
• Blood
• Buffness
• Etc..

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• How does a different gravity affect the
  cardiovascular system?
• What behaviors are changed?
• What would the effects be on the whole body?
• How can we test it?

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What can we look at?

• Blood Chemistry
• Chemicals in blood
• Arterial Dilation
• Size of the vessels in the body
• Electrical Signals
• Pulse, Heart Effort
• Blood Flow
• Flow rate and behavior of fluid in the body

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Blood Chemistry

• Draw blood before and after
• Compare
• Problems?

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Arterial Dilation

• Measurements before and after
• Compare
• Problems?

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Electrical Signals

• EKG
• Need a volunteer
• Problems?

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Blood Flow

• Doppler Effect
• Fluids do this too
• Use an ultrasonic Doppler probe
• Problems

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Combining Everything

• Blood Chemistry
• Higher levels of stress induced chemicals
• Arterial Dilation
• Smaller vessels after
• Electrical Signals
• Should see correlations between flight mode and
  pulse/signals from heart
• Blood Flow
• Same

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Hypothesis (complicated)

• Due to the stress of the variable gravity
  environment, we expect to find that the brachial
  arteries will have limited or spastic dilation
  response to pulsatile flow compared to pre-flight
  results. The glutathione assay should find
  heightened levels of glutathione in the blood, as
  glutathione is a cofactor in the production of
  antioxidant enzymes. The 8-iso-prostaglandin F2a
  assay should show higher levels of the compound
  due to the fact that it is produced by the
  catalyzed oxidation of arachidonic acid, an
  antioxidant, and is indicative of vascular
  inflammation. The elevated levels of glutathione
  and 8-iso-prostaglandin are indicative of
  heightened oxidative stress. For all assays, the
  post flight data should show increased levels of
  free radical induced stresses.

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How we are doing it
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Results

• What will happen?
• What can this be used for other than space
  flight?
• What changes can be made for future versions?
• Other questions?
• http//www.nsbri.org/HumanPhysSpace
• http//www.ae.gatech.edu/gravity/