Overview
Gravity is one of the four fundamental forces that has strongly influenced the development of life. Many animals, including humans, possess organs that allow them to orient themselves in space based on gravity. With the advent of manned spaceflight, it became clear that microgravity, also known as weightlessness, has drastic effects on the body and individual organs. Surprisingly, microgravity not only affects organs but also individual cells. To this day, it is not completely understood how cells can perceive external forces. Among other proteins, mechanosensitive ion channels in the cell membrane are suspected to play a crucial role. Therefore, the team from Lucerne aims to investigate how these channels behave under microgravity conditions.
A student team from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts conducted a biological experiment aboard a sounding rocket, as part of the REXUS program. They aimed to examine the effect of microgravity on mechanosensitive ion channels on frog eggs.
REXUS stands for Rocket Experiments for University Students and is an educational program of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Swedish National Space Board (SNSB). Student teams can apply for a spot on one of the two sounding rockets launched annually as part of this program. Since Sweden opens its share to all member states of the European Space Agency (ESA), Swiss students can also participate in this competition. Teams must successfully go through a two-stage selection process to receive a flight ticket.
