PharmaSat
PharmaSat is a nanosatellite developed by NASA Ames Research Center which measures the influence of microgravity upon yeast resistance to an antifungal agent. As a follow on to the highly successful GeneSat-1 Mission, the Ames Small Spacecraft Division is collaborating with industry and local universities to develop the next generation fully-automated, miniaturized triple cubesat spaceflight system for biological payloads.[1]
PharmaSat is the first nanosatellite to implement PI (Principal Investigator) guided biological science. The mission is designed to answer questions key to countermeasure development for long-term space travel and habitation.
Background
The PharmaSat mission builds upon the extensive technology development program and recent flight heritage of GeneSat-1. GeneSat-1 combined innovative miniaturization and integration strategies with recent developments in microfluidics and optics in a free-flying satellite, self-powered and weighing 5 kg. It provided life-support, growth, monitoring, and analysis capabilities for microorganisms. Retrofitting GeneSat-1 to save significant cost and schedule, PharmaSat accomplished five critical functions in an autonomous free-flyer platform: 1- Provide life support and environmental control for growth of the yeast strain in 48 independent microwells 2 - Dose the growing yeast with antifungal agent at the appropriate point on the growth curve with three distinct, well-defined dosage levels, plus a zero-dose control 3 - Track the population of the yeast via optical density of each microwell before, during and after antifungal administration 4 - Determine well-by-well yeast viability at multiple, well-defined times after antifungal administration using a colorimetric reagent, Alamar Blue 5 - Telemeter the resulting population and viability data to Earth, along with system status data.[2]
The Mission
Launch occurred at 23:55 UTC on May 19, 2009 aboard a Minotaur I rocket. PharmaSat was flown as a secondary payload co-manifested with TacSat-3, developed by Air Force Research Laboratory.
After PharmaSat separated from the Minotaur I rocket and successfully entered low Earth orbit at approximately 285 miles above the Earth, it activated and began transmitting radio signals to two ground control stations. The primary ground station at SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif., transmits mission data from the satellite to the spacecraft operators in the mission control center at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. A secondary station is located at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, Calif. All mission operations are performed by the Robotic Systems Laboratory of Santa Clara University. After establishing contact the satellite received a command to initiate its experiment, which lasted 96 hours. Once the experiment began, PharmaSat relayed data in near real-time up to six months, to mission managers, engineers and project scientists for further analysis.[3]
The Mission Dashboard is provided by Santa Clara University and shows up-to-date telemetry of the mission for the public's viewing.
PharmaSat also carries an amateur radio beacon which broadcasts real-time health and status telemetry. The beacon frequency is 437.465 MHz. Amateur radio operators can collect and submit decoded packets through the Mission Dashboard.[4]