APHRODITE: Design and Preliminary Tests of an Autonomous and Reusable Photo-sensing Device for Immunological Test aboard the International Space Station

Preliminary results of the design and manufacturing of APHRODITE, a compact and versatile device for carrying out analyses of biological fluids during space missions that will be used as a technological demonstrator on board the International Space Station (ISS) for the quantitative determination of salivary biomarkers indicators of alterations of functionality of the immune system. The paper addresses the design of the main subsystems of the analytical device and the preliminary results obtained during the first implementations of the device subsystems and testing measurements. In particular, the system design and the experiment data output of the lab-on-chip photosensors and of the front-end readout electronics are reported in detail

A water-filled garment to protect astronauts during interplanetary missions tested on board the ISS

Abstract As manned spaceflights beyond low Earth orbit are in the agenda of Space Agencies, the concerns related to space radiation exposure of the crew are still without conclusive solutions. The risk of long-term detrimental health effects needs to be kept below acceptable limits, and emergency countermeasures must be planned to avoid the short-term consequences of exposure to high particle fluxes during hardly predictable solar events. Space habitat shielding cannot be the ultimate solution: the increasing complexity of future missions will require astronauts to protect themselves in low-shielded areas, e.g. during emergency operations. Personal radiation shielding is promising, particularly if using available resources for multi-functional shielding devices. In this work we report on all steps from the conception, design, manufacturing, to the final test on board the International Space Station (ISS) of the first prototype of a water-filled garment for emergency radiation shielding against solar particle events. The garment has a good shielding potential and comfort level. On-board water is used for filling and then recycled without waste. The successful outcome of this experiment represents an important breakthrough in space radiation shielding, opening to the development of similarly conceived devices and their use in interplanetary missions as the one to Mars

The AGILE Mission

AGILE is an Italian Space Agency mission dedicated to observing the gamma-ray Universe. The AGILE's very innovative instrumentation for the first time combines a gamma-ray imager (sensitive in the energy range 30 MeV-50 GeV), a hard X-ray imager (sensitive in the range 18-60 keV), a calorimeter (sensitive in the range 350 keV-100 MeV), and an anticoincidence system. AGILE was successfully launched on 2007 April 23 from the Indian base of Sriharikota and was inserted in an equatorial orbit with very low particle background. Aims. AGILE provides crucial data for the study of active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts, pulsars, unidentified gamma-ray sources, galactic compact objects, supernova remnants, TeV sources, and fundamental physics by microsecond timing. Methods. An optimal sky angular positioning (reaching 0.1 degrees in gamma- rays and 1-2 arcmin in hard X-rays) and very large fields of view (2.5 sr and 1 sr, respectively) are obtained by the use of Silicon detectors integrated in a very compact instrument. Results. AGILE surveyed the gamma- ray sky and detected many Galactic and extragalactic sources during the first months of observations. Particular emphasis is given to multifrequency observation programs of extragalactic and galactic objects. Conclusions. AGILE is a successful high-energy gamma-ray mission that reached its nominal scientific performance. The AGILE Cycle-1 pointing program started on 2007 December 1, and is open to the international community through a Guest Observer Program

PERSEO: Personal Radiation Shielding in Space, a Multifunctional Approach

Space radiation is one of the main limiting factors for deep space human exploration missions. Besides the risk of long-term health effects due to galactic cosmic rays, the crew needs to be protected from solar particle events (SPE) - huge fluxes of ionizing particles, mainly protons with energies up to 100’s of MeV. Exposure to strong SPEs can lead to mission impairment and immediately endanger astronaut’s life. Differently from high energy galactic cosmic rays, SPEs can be shielded in space: best solutions under study are those based on the optimization of resources available on board, such as water, food, and waste. Wearable, portable and personal multifunctional radiation shielding systems therefore represents a very promising perspective. This paper focuses on such multifunctional approach to radiation shielding and, in particular, to the project PERSEO (Personal Radiation Shielding for intErplanetary missiOns). Funded by the Italian Space Agency, PERSEO led to the development of the prototype of a radiation protection garment for use in a pressurized space habitat: the garment can be filled with water at need, thus shielding astronauts’ most radiosensitive organs during SPEs. Water can be recycled after use, thus optimizing the use of available resources. The ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli has successfully demonstrated practicality and ease of use of a PERSEO prototype on the ISS, during the VITA mission, in November 2017. This paper reports on the key technical features of the PERSEO garment and on the results of the ISS on-orbit demonstration. PERSEO is funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), coordinated by the University of Pavia, and involves scientists from Thales Alenia Space, SMAT, AVIOTEC, ALTEC, University of Roma Tor Vergata, Kayser Italia and ARESCOSMO

Italian space agency science on the international space station: The vita mission

Thanks to the ASI/NASA MoU for the MPLM/PMM modules, the Italian Space Agency has access to the ISS utilization resources. In this frame, ASI has carried out over the years a thorough ISS Utilization program through 58 on board investigations in the fileds of biology and biotechnology, earth and space science, eductional activities and outreach, human research, phisical science and technology development and demonstration. Furthermore, ASI accrued three Shuttle flight crew member opportunities and the rights to one ASI provided ISS crew member for one on orbit increment every five years, with an assured minimum of three. Within this frame, ASI has assigned Italian astronauts of the European Astronaut Corp to three short-duration flight opportunities to ISS, namely Shuttle flights STS-100 (Umberto Guidoni), STS-120 (Paolo Nespoli, Esperia) and STS-134 (Roberto Vittori, DAMA), and to three ISS long-duration flight opportunities, with Luca Parmitano assigned to ISS Expedition 36/37 (Volare), Samantha Cristoforetti, the first Italian woman in space, assigned to ISS Expedition 42/43 (Futura) and finally again Paolo Nespoli, for his third visit to the ISS with the VITA mission. In order to complement the VITA Mission the Italian Space Agency coordinated a pool of scientists, industries leaders in innovative technological fields and academic researchers who worked on the design and implementation of payloads, experiments and scientific protocols in the fields of human physiology, cell biology, countermeasures, physical sciences, technological demonstrations and educational activities. ASI has taken advance of the industrial support by Kayser Italia, which provided services for the new payloads integration process, operations and logistics. Following a call for research opportunities, as well as promoting public-private partnership, ASI appointed for the VITA mission a total of 11 investigations, involving 29 different institutions and about 40 investigators. The experiments require: the use of ASI flight hardware developed for previous experiments, available either on ground or on-board; the access to on-board facilities provided by NASA and ESA, under ad-hoc agreements; the development of new payloads. The paper presents the investigations relevant to the VITA mission, describes the flight hardware and the major tasks relevant to the mission integration, the ground processing and the on-orbit operations. As well, a description of the ASI education and communication initiatives for the VITA Mission, jointly implemented with ESA, is provided. © 2017 by the International Astronautical Federation. All rights reserved

The PERSEO experience: a water-filled garment prototype for personal radiation protection of astronauts successfully tested on board the International Space Station

The PERSEO project (PErsonal Radiation Shielding for intErplanetary missiOns), funded by the Italian Space Agency, has led to the development of a first technological demonstrator of a radiation shielding garment, to be used in a pressurized space habitat, that can be filled at need with on-board water and used for personal protection in case of solar particle events. The collaboration, including academic partners and companies active in space research and technology development, designed and manufactured the prototype that has been successfully tested on board the International Space Station by the European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli in November 2017, during the VITA mission. The effectiveness of the garment in terms of reduction of the radiation dose to sensitive organs (subject to the occurrence of short-term non-cancer effects following acute exposure) has been evaluated with Monte Carlo simulations with an anthropomorphic phantom. The successful outcome of the experimental session on board has demonstrated the practicality of use and wearability of the prototype, and, in perspective, the feasibility of a personal radiation shielding strategy, complementary to habitat shielding and based on the use of available resources, of fundamental importance also in view of future manned interplanetary missions

Integration, qualification, and launch of the Mini-EUSO telescope on board the ISS

International audienceMini-EUSO is a high-sensitivity imaging telescope that observes the Earth from the ISS in the near ultraviolet band (290÷ 430 nm), through the nadir-facing, UV-transparent window in the Russian Zvezda module. The instrument, launched in 2019, has a field of view of 44∘, a spatial resolution on the Earth’s surface of 6.3 km and a temporal sampling rate of 2.5 microseconds. Thanks to its triggering and on-board processing, the telescope is capable of detecting UV emissions of cosmic, atmospheric, and terrestrial origin on different time scales, from a few microseconds up to tens of milliseconds. The optics is composed of two Fresnel lenses focusing light onto an array of 36 Hamamatsu Multi-Anode PhotoMultiplier Tubes, for a total of 2304 pixels. The telescope also contains two cameras in the near-infrared and visible, an 8-by-8 array of Silicon-PhotoMultipliers and a series of UV sensors to manage night-day transitions. The scientific objectives range from the observation of atmospheric phenomena [lightning, Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), ELVES], the study of meteoroids, the search of interstellar meteoroids and strange quark matter, mapping of the Earth’s nocturnal emissions in the ultraviolet range, and the search of cosmic rays with energy above 1021 eV. The instrument has been integrated and qualified in 2019, with the final tests in Baikonur prior to its launch. Operations involve periodic installation in the Zvezda module of the station with observations during the crew night time, with periodic downlink of data samples, with the full data being sent to the ground via pouches containing the data disks. Mission planning involves the selection of the optimal orbits to maximize the scientific return of the instrument. In this work, we will describe the various phases of construction, testing, and qualification prior to the launch and the in-flight operations of the instrument on board the ISS