Until now, a method for analyzing only viable and nondamaged cells obtained from flight experiments was lacking.
For parabolic flight experiments and especially for this study, we developed and constructed a complete experimental system which allows cell culture experiments with living mammalian cells in microgravity on board the Airbus A300 ZERO-G aircraft.
The basic principles of wind tunnel design are introduced in this chapter, with examples of different tunnel types that have been used for bird flight experiments.
For parabolic flight experiments on board the Airbus A300 ZERO-G, we developed RP (rapid prototyping -based exprototyping -basednt, which allows cexperimentalequipmentts whichliving mallowsan cells in micultureity.
Since primary microglia are not available in quantities required for parabolic flight experiments, we used the murine cell line BV-2, whose function resembles that of tissue macrophages and which share many properties with both peripheral macrophages and monocytes [ 20].
Since joining the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1979, Dr. Naderi has served as program manager for space science flight experiments and project manager for the NASA Scatterometer project.
He was bought by the US Air Force to be used in early space flight experiments for $457 – not a bad investment as it turned out.
For both ground and flight experiments, on day 6 the food trays containing eggs and larvae were transferred to the 5 empty cassettes and fresh food was given to the original flies.
Nevertheless cell response can be observed only after few seconds following gravitational changes, for example, in parabolic flight experiments.
It is equipped with one sample cuvette (diameter 4 mm, 3 cm length), which can be rotated at different speeds, (60 rpm in the present case, or without rotation for 1 g controls or parabolic flight experiments), and a PMT for the detection of light signals emitted by the samples.
