NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers swaps sample cartridges inside the Material Science Laboratory

iss073e0071487 (May 15, 2025) --- NASA astronaut and Expedition 73 Flight Engineer Nichole Ayers swaps sample cartridges inside the Material Science Laboratory (MSL) that supports high temperature space physics research using furnaces aboard the International Space Station's Destiny laboratory module. The properties of many types of materials such as metals, alloys, polymers, semiconductors, ceramics, crystals, and glasses, can be studied in the MSL to discover new applications for existing materials and new or improved materials.