Kentucky Space Announces Exomedicine Mission to the International Space Station
Kentucky Space LLC, in partnership with the Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology at Tufts University, announced today an upcoming mission, via a SpaceX launch vehicle to the International Space Station (ISS) on December 16, 2014, involving an important exomedicine experiment.
Exomedicine involves the research, development and commercialization of biomedical solutions in the microgravity environment of space for applications on Earth.
This mission, to be launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, will analyze the regeneration mechanisms of planarian flatworms in the microgravity environment (and absence of a geomagnetic field) of space. This experiment is a critical step in a specific regenerative medicine research and commercial pathway being pursued by the parties.
Once returned (alive) to Earth mid-January, the flatworms’ regeneration patterns will be analyzed via morphological & molecular genetic methods. Kentucky Space (KS) collaborator FedEx Space Solutions will be managing all the pre-launch and post-flight return movement of the terrestrial mission assets.
In addition, as part of this mission Kentucky Space will be testing Google Glass as an augmented reality tool in the preflight integration and post-flight operations. This is part of a process leading to the of utilization Google Glass as a human interface with KS technology and experiments on the ISS in 2015. In addition to Google, KS is working withInterapt, a Google at Work Certified Partner headquartered in Louisville, KY, on this novel project.
This KS mission is facilitated through a NASA Space Act Agreement and support from the Center For Science in Space(CASIS), which manages the US National Lab on the ISS.
Kentucky Space (kentuckyspace.com) is an ambitious nonprofit enterprise focused on R&D, education and entrepreneurial space solutions. The organization has successful flight and mission heritage involving high-altitude balloons, orbital spacecraft and the International Space Station (ISS). It’s commercialization partner is Space Tango.
For additional information contact Kris Kimel at kkimel@kentuckyspace.com / 859-229-6161 or Twyman Clements attclements@kentuckyspace / 959-229-2719.
