mu Space successful launch of payload into space with Blue Origin’s New Shepard on October 13.
an extra enormous Payload that mu Space and TOT improved incorporates a wide scope of electronic devices and sensors for watching and estimating closely in microgravity. Other than the Payload of TOT, mu Space also delivers its own experimental equipment, including partner’s experiment such as DNA experiment from Spaceth.co, a group of teenage and young scientists.
Our payload
There are 3 main modules for this payload which are categorized by the breakdown list below.
1. DNA experiment
2. DC – TOT
3. FGUX
3.1 FMX 1 – NASA projects; study fluid movement, glove humidity
3.2 GMCX – measure radiation in space
3.3 UFLMX – measure water balloon volume
DNA – We will study the Gibson Assembly process of the DNA before and after spaceflight. The Gibson Assembly is the process that connects DNA fragments. Travelling in an unoptimized environment may cause damages to the DNA, and the assembly process may or may not be positive. We will study the effect of weightlessness and unoptimized environment during spaceflight and logistic by varying the concentration of the liquid that stores the DNA. This will lead to the understanding of DNA Storage preservation in such an unoptimized environment like spaceflight or long-duration shipping process.
DC – We are planning to launch a commercial server unit to test its operability during launch and in micro-gravity. The server will begin its startup sequence before launch and continue operating throughout the flight until after it has landed. The server will not contain any EM-transmitting hardware such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. This payload will also contain sensors to record the conditions of the surrounding environment.
Note: FGUX = FMX1 + GMCX + UFLMX
FMX1 – Fluid in microfluidic device experiment (FMX1) is an experiment investigating the behaviour of water inside a patterned device mimicking microfluidic chips. There are mainly two compartments: instrument and experiment chamber, within the experiment box. A camera is used to monitor the experiment. A servo is installed within the experiment chamber where water is sucked from a reservoir upstream by a syringe. All sensors and the servo are connected to a Raspberry Pi, which is automated during the flight. Within the small-channel device, there are four small chambers for surface tension and absorptivity monitoring of fabrics.
FMX1 is designed such that when installed and launched, water is located within the reservoir due to gravitational force. After liftoff, all sensors are turned on with collected data registered to the Raspberry Pi’s memory. When coast start is detected, the servo is activated to guide the syringe, sucking the water from the reservoir through the device in microgravity condition.
GMCX – Ionized radiation dose rate changes with altitude for atmospheric absorption. Although the pressurized cabin with thick walls can reduce the dose rate down to negligible, it is worth measuring the radiation to compare with naked measurement. Geiger-Muller counter experiment (GMCX) measures the ionized radiation dose rate from a tube connected to a converter board purposefully designed for dosimetry. The experiment consists only of a circuit board containing within the FMX1 instrument chamber.
GMCX starts the sensor from power-up. It then coincides the dosimetry data with the altitude, latitude, and longitude from the IPC. The experiment is turned off after the IPC powered down.
UFLMX – Ultrasonic fluid level measurement experiment (UFLMX) investigates the methodology of measuring the level of fluid in a container as conventional methods cannot be employed in microgravity condition. UFLMX’s contains an ultrasonic sensor and a processing unit. The system will detect the volume of water inside the sealed container.
UFLMX operates all along with the flight. The system will collect data for liquid (water) volume during each flight event. The experiment is turned off after the IPC powered down.
This payload flew on-board Blue Origin’s New Shepard space vehicle. The New Shepard vertical takeoff and vertical landing vehicle is capable of carrying hundreds of pounds of payloads per flight and will ultimately carry up to six astronauts to altitudes beyond 100 kilometers, also known as the Karman Line, the internationally-recognized boundary of space.
