Experiment themes
Experiment themes of Space Radiation Environment Monitoring performed on STS-91.
Title
Principal Investigator
Outline of the experiment
Realtime space radiation monitoring
Tadayoshi Doke (Waseda University)
By using Realtime Radiation Monitoring Device (RRMD) practically whole range of LET (Linear Energy Transfer) distribution of in coming charged particles will be measured in real-time to evaluate the dose equivalent in a precise manner.
Realtime data exchange experiment of Space Radiation Environment data
Fumihiko Tomita (Communication Research Laboratory)
By exchanging solar and space environment observation data with the RRMD acquired data in a semi-realtime manner, and also by performing total analysis of those data, the investigator will test and evaluate software for forecasting space radiation environment fluctuation and will accumulate data for future operation.
Radiation dose monitoring with human body equivalent materials
Kazunobu Fujitaka (National Institute of Radiological Sciences)
Dosimeters will be set to the several locations of internal organs in the human body phantom developed by NASA, and in the Space Shuttle, the radiation dose distributions inside human body will be monitored. The data acquired will be analyzed to estimate the space radiation risk of astronauts and its evaluation method.
Research on the effect of space environment against DNA recovery
Yasuhiko Kobayashi(Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute)
The experiment conducted in the International Microgravity Laboratory 2 (IML-2) indicated that in the apace environment the recovery of D.Radiodurans iradiation resistant bacteriajfrom pre-irradiated radiation damage is enhanced than on the ground. Although the experiment was repeated on the STS-79 to confirm this phenomenon the space operation was not performed as designed, and provided insufficient results. This is the third trial to reconfirm the unique phenomenon by using same specimens and reproducing procedures and conditions.
Effect of microgravity on damaged DNA recovery
Takeo Ohnishi (Nara Medical University)
Damages caused by radiation on DNA are recovered quickly by repair enzymes. However, it has been suggested that in space, microgravity environment could affect the processes of such enzyme reactions. This experiment will investigate how the microgravity environment affects the repair reaction process to polymerize DNA with artificially synthesized double strand breaks.
Experiments from STS-89 to be retried on STS-91
Title
Principal Investigator
Outline of the experiment
Measurement of mutation rate under microgravity environment
Takeo Ohnishi (Nara Medical University)
The results of space experiments have indicated that there are contradictions concerning the space radiation effects on living organisms. This experiment is intended to clarify one of such contradictions on mutation rate. The rate of errors in DNA replication which are hypothesized as one of the origin of mutation, will be investigated by measuring how space environment affects DNA polymerase reaction.
Gene and protein expression analyses in the cell exposed to space radiation
Masahiko Hirano(Toray Research Center)
Co-Investigator : Takeo Ohnishi (Nara Medical University)
Several reports suggested that complicated biological reactions were induced by the space radiation in our animal cells. However, those phenomena have not been clarified at molecular level. This experiment uses yeast as the model of eucaryote cells and performs wide range of molecular level analyses as to what type of genes or proteins are being expressed inside the cultured cells to understand common mechanisms occuring in the animal cell level.
Last Updated : June 2, 1998
