The International Space Station (ISS) is open for operations, ISS National Laboratory Chief Scientist Dr. Michael Roberts told Yahoo Finance at CES 2023 (video above).
Roberts was at the event to spread the word about research and development opportunities on the ISS.
“We’ve all seen videos of crew members playing with water or M&Ms in the space environment, so you realize it’s a fundamentally different environment than what we have on Earth,” he said. “This turns into fundamental research in the physics of objects. So we worked with materials science companies that were trying to improve turbine blades for use in spacecraft and aircraft engines. We work with powertrain engineers who are trying to improve and improve fuel efficiency.”
The world of companies with which ISS cooperates is vast and includes both pharmaceutical and consumer companies.
“We are also actively working with the pharmaceutical sector,” he said. “So living in space for long periods of time is a lot, but it also wears your body down. Our immune system does not work well in such a space environment. Our bones and muscles begin to weaken over time, so you can use this as a medical researcher and understand ways to combat this here on Earth.”
Procter & Gamble ( PG ) is an R&D partner of ISS that focuses on the Tide laundry detergent mega-brand. P&G was originally approached by NASA, but it was the company’s partnership with the ISS that allowed Tide to be tested in space, said Mark Sivik, a senior scientist at P&G.
“It costs about $10,000 to get a kilogram of water to the International Space Station, let alone to get to the moon or Mars, so you don’t just have an infinite supply of water,” Sivik said. “Many people don’t know this, but astronauts don’t wash their clothes. So any crew member that goes up, they wear their clothes for three or four days at a time, and they get replaced as they resupply. Now imagine the next day you’re training and wearing the same clothes.”
In microgravity – conditions where gravity is not completely absent, but incredibly low – P&G can test Tide in a way it hasn’t done before, testing products for stability, durability and performance over time. This is a vital opportunity to test the product, Sivik added.
“It reduced the cost of access to space”
Roberts spoke highly of the ISS crew, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which he said helped usher in an era of cheaper space travel.
“For the first time in history, we have frequent access to space thanks to SpaceX and Cygnus, operated by Northrop Grumman, and a new player, Sierra Space, will soon come online,” he said. “There are many ways to get cargo, crew and people to and from the International Space Station, so we plan to develop this even further in the future.”
For example, Roberts said, SpaceX’s reusable rockets have completely revamped daily life and work at the Kennedy Space Center.
“We are current benefactors of the great success that SpaceX and other companies have achieved,” he added. “Spacecraft reusability has completely changed where I live near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. So now we have launches that happen every week or every other week and it’s great that some of the launches come back every time they launch something. This has been a huge benefit to everyone as it has reduced the cost of access to space.”
This is the case of Roberts – even though the ISS will be decommissioned in2030sthere is unique research and development that companies can do on the ISS today that could impact future missions.
“The International Space Station will be operational until about 2030, but that’s not the end,” Roberts said. “There will be commercial platforms in space that will join the space station from China, giving people around the world access to space.”
