page_title: LOCAD
section_title: Field tests and scientific expeditions
hierarchical_section_title: LOCAD / Portable Test System / Field tests and scientific expeditions
caption_attribution_description: English: Keith Splawn (ILC Dover) tests the LOCAD-PTS swab system during simulated surface Extravehicular Activity (EVA) in the I-Suit at Meteor Crater, NASA Desert RATS 2005.
context_page_description: The Lab-on-a-Chip Applications Development element is a set of related lab-on-a-chip projects at NASA. The projects develop integrated lab-on-a-chip products in three areas related to space exploration: Environmental Control and Life Systems Support, Medical Systems, and Remote Exploration. NASA conducts activities related to these projects both at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and aboard the International Space Station.
context_section_description: Before LOCAD-PTS was launched to space, it was tested extensively in simulated microgravity with the use of parabolic flight, to verify nominal function of the instrument and sample handling procedures. It was also used for several years on scientific expeditions to study microbial life in extreme environments on Earth. These extreme environments included Svalbard in the high Arctic (80N latitude) during the NASA-sponsored Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition (AMASE), volcanoes in Kamchatka, far east Russia, during Russian-NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) Expeditions in 2004 and 2006, the desert of Arizona during the NASA Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS) of 2005 and 2006, and the underwater habitat Aquarius in the Florida Keys during NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) Expedition 5, under command of astronaut Peggy Whitson, and Mount Everest.
  LOCAD-PTS is a technology supported within NASA's Advanced Environmental Monitoring and Control (AEMC) Program, which is in turn, supported by the Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP) of NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD). All technologies within AEMC have been reviewed by the National Research Council and LOCAD-PTS currently has over two years experience operating on orbit.
caption: Test of LOCAD-PTS swab system during simulated surface Extravehicular Activity (EVA) at Meteor Crater, NASA Desert RATS (September 2005).
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