Experiments Bound for the Space Station Are Meant to Improve Life on Earth
*By Chloe Aiello*
SpaceX plans to launch an unmanned cargo spacecraft bound for the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday. But the scientific equipment aboard the ship is actually meant to improve life on Earth, according to Ken Shields, chief operating officer for the ISS National Laboratory.
"ISS national lab, alone, has 20 plus payloads going to the Space Station tomorrow. We are supporting and facilitating research and development, scientific discovery, and even commercial pursuits on the space station, all tied to some Earth-bound benefits," Shields told Cheddar on Monday.
Included in the cargo are [crystals, barley, and dental glue](https://www.iss-casis.org/press-releases/more-than-20-u-s-national-laboratory-payloads-part-of-spacexs-16th-mission-to-space-station/), among other things ー all in the name of science. A crystal growth investigation from Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research will use microgravity to crystallize a specific gene which has mutations that account for many cancers. The barley will be used in an experiment by Budweiser to help develop malt barley varieties more tolerant to extreme environments ー it could have implications, not only for beer, but for agriculture more broadly. Also aboard will be a "Guardians of the Galaxy"-inspired experiment, in which a high school student will study the effectiveness in microgravity of a UV-activated dental glue.
With increasing privatization of the aerospace industry, Shields said space on shuttles to ISS is increasingly in-demand, even if the experiments aboard aren't exactly out-of-this-world.
"We see more and more interest from non-NASA interests to do things in space, to leverage somehow microgravity or the environment of space, oftentimes for very fundamental and basic scientific discovery. But more and more, we are starting to see a lot of interest in things more on the applied scale, maybe accelerating things to market," he said.
In other words, it's not exactly rocket science. But rocket science does come into play in mission preparation, which Shields called "very complex."
Weather permitting, SpaceX's Dragon cargo spacecraft [will blast off](https://www.nasa.gov/launchschedule/) on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at about 1:30 p.m. EST on Tuesday, Dec. 4.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/u-s-national-lab-prepares-to-send-research-projects-to-i-s-s).
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
