Results may also lead to improvements in fire safety, benefiting mining, chemical manufacturing and aerospace industries. It is designed for quick and easy installation of hardware and experiments on Space Station. Over the next 12 hours, working with science teams on the ground at Marshall, crew members will continue to prepare the Spacelab and begin initiating experiments. This technology allows scientists on the ground to monitor their experiments, change parameters and improve the quality and quantity of scientific information gathered during the mission. The Protein Crystal Growth experiments will be activated overnight.
Proteins are essential components of all living cells and serve many different functions.
The weightlessness environment of the Spacelab allows scientists to grow near-perfect crystals, necessary to determine the exact structure and function of a protein. On Earth, gravity henders the formation of perfect crystals. Voss will begin activation of four microgravity measurement systems to measure slight yet unavoidable disturbances in the microgravity environment of the Spacelab. The electromagnetic containerless processing facility will be used to study the undercooling and rapid solidification of metals and alloys. Undercooling occurs when a solid is melted into a liquid then cooled below its normal freezing point without solidifying.