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By NASA
The book cover for the 2025 edition of the Microgravity Materials Research Researcher’s Guide June 2025 Edition
Most materials are formed from a partially or totally fluid sample, and the transport of heat and mass from the fluid into the solid during solidification inherently influences the formation of the material and its resultant properties. The ISS provides a long-duration microgravity environment for conducting experiments that enables researchers to examine the effects of heat and mass transport on materials processes in the near-absence of gravity-driven forces. The microgravity environment greatly reduces buoyancy-driven convection, hydrostatic pressure, and sedimentation. It can also be advantageous for designing experiments with reduced container interactions. The reduction in these gravity-related sources of heat and mass transport may be taken advantage of to determine how material processes and microstructure formation are affected by gravity-driven and gravity independent sources of heat and mass transfer.
Materials science experiments on the ISS have yielded broad and significant scientific advancements, including contributing to the development of improved mathematical models for predicting material properties during processing on Earth and enabling a better understanding of microstructure formation during solidification towards controlling the material properties of various alloys.
This researcher’s guide provides information on the acceleration environment of the space station and describes facilities available for materials research. Examples of previous microgravity materials research and descriptions of planned research are also provided.
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By Space Force
Vandenberg Space Force Base stands as a vital hub where Guardians and Airmen oversee launches that safeguard U.S. interests and uphold America’s edge in the space domain.
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Earth scientist Compton J. Tucker has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences for his work creating innovative tools to track the planet’s changing vegetation from space. It’s research that has spanned nearly 50 years at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where he is a visiting scientist after retiring in March.
Tucker’s research began with identifying wavelengths of light that are absorbed or reflected as plants undergo photosynthesis, and has evolved into calculating the health and productivity of vegetation over time with satellites.
“I’m honored and surprised,” Tucker said of his election. “There were opportunities at the Goddard Space Flight Center that have enabled this work that couldn’t be found elsewhere. There were people who built satellites, who understood satellite data, and had the computer code to process it. All the work I’ve done has been part of a team, with other people contributing in different ways. Working at NASA is a team effort of science and discovery that’s fun and intellectually rewarding.”
Earth scientist Compton Tucker, who has studied remote sensing of vegetation at NASA Goddard for 50 years, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.Courtesy Compton Tucker Tucker earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from Colorado State University, where he worked on a National Science Foundation-funded project analyzing spectrometer data of grassland ecosystems. In 1975, he came to NASA Goddard as a postdoctoral fellow and used what he learned in his graduate work to modify the imager on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) meteorological satellites and modify Landsat’s thematic mapper instrument.
He became a civil servant at the agency in 1977, and continued work with radiometers to study vegetation – first with handheld devices, then with NOAA’s Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer satellite instruments. He has also used data from Landsat satellites, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instruments, and commercial satellites. His scientific papers have been cited 100,000 times, and one of his recent studies mapped 10 billion individual trees across Africa’s drylands to inventory carbon storage at the tree level.
“The impact of Compton Tucker’s work over the last half-century at Goddard is incredible,” said Dalia Kirschbaum, director of the Earth Sciences Division at NASA Goddard. “Among his many achievements, he essentially developed the technique of using satellites to study photosynthesis from plants, which people have used to monitor droughts, forecast crop shortages, defeat the desert locust, and even predict disease outbreaks. This is a well-deserved honor.”
Goddard scientist Compton Tucker’s work using remote sensing instruments to study vegetation involved field work in Iceland in 1976, left, graduate student research at Colorado State University in the early 1970s, top right, and analyzing satellite data stored on tape reels at Goddard.Courtesy Compton Tucker The National Academy of Sciences was proposed by Abraham Lincoln and established by Congress in 1863, charged with advising the United States on science and technology. Each year, up to 120 new members are elected “in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research,” according to the organization.
In addition his role as a visiting scientist at Goddard, Tucker is also an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland and a consulting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania’s University Museum. He was awarded the National Air and Space Collins Trophy for Current Achievement in 1993 and the Vega Medal by the Swedish Society of Anthropology and Geography in 2014. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union, and won the Senior Executive Service Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service in 2017, among other honors.
By Kate Ramsayer
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Jun 05, 2025 EditorErica McNameeContactKate D. Ramsayerkate.d.ramsayer@nasa.govLocationNASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Goddard Space Flight Center Earth General Landsat Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) View the full article
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By NASA
NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) are collaborating to launch scientific investigations aboard Axiom Mission 4, the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station. These studies include examining muscle regeneration, growth of sprouts and edible microalgae, survival of tiny aquatic organisms, and human interaction with electronic displays in microgravity.
The mission is targeted to launch no earlier than Tuesday, June 10, aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida
Regenerating muscle tissue
Immunofluorescent image of human muscle fibers for Myogenesis-ISRO, showing nuclei (blue) and proteins (red).Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine, India During long-duration spaceflights, astronauts lose muscle mass, and their muscle cells’ regenerative ability declines. Researchers suspect this may happen because microgravity interferes with metabolism in mitochondria, tiny structures within cells that produce energy. The Myogenesis-ISRO investigation uses muscle stem cell cultures to examine the muscle repair process and test chemicals known to support mitochondrial function. Results could lead to interventions that maintain muscle health during long-duration space missions, help people on Earth with age-related muscle loss and muscle-wasting diseases, and assist athletes and people recovering from surgery.
Sprouting seeds
This preflight image shows sprouted fenugreek seeds for the Sprouts-ISRO investigation.Ravikumar Hosamani Lab, University of Agricultural Sciences, India The Sprouts-ISRO investigation looks at the germination and growth in microgravity of seeds from greengram and fenugreek, nutritious plants commonly eaten on the Indian subcontinent. Bioactive compounds in fenugreek seeds also have therapeutic properties, and the leaves contain essential vitamins and minerals. Learning more about how space affects the genetics, nutritional content, and other characteristics over multiple generations of plants could inform the development of ways for future missions to reliably produce plants as a food source.
Microalgae growth
Culture bags for Space Microalgae-ISRO.Redwire Space Microalgae-ISRO studies how microgravity affects microalgae growth and genetics. Highly digestible microalgae species packed with nutrients could be a food source on future space missions. These organisms also grow quickly, produce energy and oxygen, and consume carbon dioxide, traits that could be employed in life support and fuel systems on spacecraft and in certain scenarios on Earth.
Tiny but tough
NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson sets up the BioServe microscope, which will be used by the Voyager Tardigrade-ISRO investigation.NASA Tardigrades are tiny aquatic organisms that can tolerate extreme conditions on Earth. Voyager Tardigrade-ISRO tests the survival of a strain of tardigrades in the harsh conditions of space, including cosmic radiation and ultra-low temperatures, which kill most life forms. Researchers plan to revive dormant tardigrades, count the number of eggs laid and hatched during the mission, and compare the gene expression patterns of populations in space and on the ground. Results could help identify what makes these organisms able to survive extreme conditions and support development of technology to protect astronauts on future missions and those in harsh environments on Earth.
Improving electronic interactions
NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara interacts with a touchscreen. Voyager Displays-ISRO examines how spaceflight affects use of such devices.NASA Research shows that humans interact with touchscreen devices differently in space. Voyager Displays – ISRO examines how spaceflight affects interactions with electronic displays such as pointing tasks, gaze fixation, and rapid eye movements along with how these interactions affect the user’s feelings of stress or wellbeing. Results could support improved design of control devices for spacecraft and habitats on future space missions as well as for aviation and other uses on Earth.
Download high-resolution photos and videos of the research mentioned in this article.
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By NASA
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
How do we do research in zero gravity?
Actually when astronauts do experiments on the International Space Station, for instance, to environment on organisms, that environment is actually technically called microgravity. That is, things feel weightless, but we’re still under the influence of Earth’s gravity.
Now, the very microgravity that we’re trying to study up there can make experiments actually really kind of difficult for a bunch of different reasons.
First of all, stuff floats. So losing things in the ISS is a very real possibility. For example,
there was a set of tomatoes that was harvested in 2022 put it in a bag and it floated away and we couldn’t find it for eight months.
So to prevent this kind of thing from happening, we use a lot of different methods, such as using enclosed experiment spaces like glove boxes and glove bags. We use a lot of Velcro to stick stuff to.
Another issue is bubbles in liquids. So, on Earth, bubbles float up, in space they don’t float up, they’ll interfere with optical measurements or stop up your microfluidics. So space experiment equipment often includes contraptions for stopping or blocking or trapping bubbles.
A third issue is convection. So on Earth, gravity drives a process of gas mixing called convection and that helps circulate air. But without that in microgravity we worry about some of our experimental organisms and whether they’re going to get the fresh air that they need. So we might do things like adding a fan to their habitat, or if we can’t, we’ll take their habitat and put it somewhere where there might already be a fan on the ISS or in a corridor where we think they are going to be a lot of astronauts moving around and circulating the air.
Yet another issue is the fact that a lot of the laboratory instruments we use on Earth are not designed for microgravity. So to ensure that gravity doesn’t play a factor in how they work, we might do experiments on the ground where we turn them on their side or upside down, or rotate them on a rotisserie to make sure that they keep working.
So, as you can tell, for every experiment that we do on the International Space Station, there’s a whole team of scientists on the ground that has spent years developing the experiment design. And so I guess the answer to how we do research in microgravity is with a lot of practice and preparation.
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