NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Scientists and payload developers can get more information on International Space Station research facilities by contacting the ISS Payloads Office or at 281-244-6187.

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Overview | Description | Applications | Operations | Results | Publications | Imagery

Facility Overview


Brief Facility Summary

The Biological Research in Canisters for OptiCells^™ (BRIC-Opti) provides a closed environment with an atmosphere of known initial composition for microbial growth in microgravity.

Facility Manager(s)

Information Pending

Co-Facility Manager(s)

Information Pending

Facility Developer(s)

Kennedy Space Center, Space Life Sciences Laboratory, Cape Canaveral, FL, United States
Bionetics Corporation, Cape Canaveral, FL, United States

Sponsoring Agency

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Expeditions Assigned

13,14

Previous ISS Missions

International Space Station Expedition 13 was the first mission of the BRIC-Opti.

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Facility Description

Facility Overview

• The Biological Research in Canisters for OptiCells^™ (BRIC-Opti) is designed to provide a closed environment with an atmosphere of known initial composition for microbial growth in space.



• The BRIC-Opti provides a redundant level of containment for potentially hazardous materials and autonomous logging of temperature data in three physical locations within each canister.

Description

The Biological Research in Canisters for OptiCells^™ (BRIC-Opti) is a sealed aluminum container that provides two levels of containment during all phases of operation. The BRIC-Opti has no active thermal control, and specimens that are tolerant of the ambient thermal environment onboard spacecraft are specifically selected. Each BRIC-Opti contains four sub-elements called OptiCells™ that are commercially available from BioCrystal, Ltd.

The OptiCell^™ comprises a sealed polystyrene frame with two gas-permeable polystyrene windows. Two self-sealing septa permit the introduction of media and inoculum into the interstitial space between the membrane windows. Each BRIC-Opti also contains a single autonomous multichannel data logger made by Onset Corporation. The battery-powered HOBO^™ data logger provides sensors for relative humidity and three channels of temperature. The data logger includes two T-type temperature sensors attached by short cables. Data loggers are activated prior to final canister integration and read postflight. The 10 integrated BRIC-Opti assemblies are passively stowed in the middeck of the space shuttle. The final stowage configuration, whether in a half middeck locker or an equivalent cargo transfer bag, is flexible.

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Operations

Facility Operations

The Biological Research in Canisters for OptiCells^™ (BRIC-Opti) is passively stowed on the International Space Station (ISS). BRIC-Opti could be transferred periodically from ISS stowage to the Minus Eighty Degrees Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) or its equivalent depending on experiment objectives.

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Results/More Information

Information Pending

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Availability

Operated on ISS

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Results Publications

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Ground Based Results Publications

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ISS Patents

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Related Publications

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Related Websites

Onset

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Imagery

NASA Image: ISS014E05120 - Astronaut Michael E. Lopez-Alegria, Expedition 14 Commander and NASA Space Station Science Officer, prepares to work with a Passive Observatories for Experimental Microbial Systems (POEMS) sample container in the Destiny laboratory module.
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NASA Image ISS013E64639 - The image on the left shows ground control and a flight sample of bacteria cultures growing through the solid media agar; scientists can sample the genetic changes across multiple generations by sampling different places in the growth medium. The image on the right shows NASA International Space Station (ISS) Science Officer Jeff Williams inserting one of the Passive Observatories for Experimental Microbial Systems (POEMS) samples into the Minus Eighty Degrees Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI).
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