A ‘Microgravity’ Laboratory in UMBI: A Collaboration With the National Space Agency (ANGKASA)
A Random Positioning Machine which was custom-made by Dutch Space finally arrived and was successfully installed on the 25th March 2014 at UMBI. The laboratory has been officially name the UMBI-ANGKASA Microgravity Laboratory.
UMBI has been given the honour to host the first ever simulated microgravity system in the country, thanks to a research grant from the National Space Agency or ANGKASA. A Random Positioning Machine which was custom-made by Dutch Space finally arrived and was successfully installed on the 25th March 2014 at UMBI. The laboratory has been officially name the UMBI-ANGKASA Microgravity Laboratory.
Many of us still remember the Program Angkasawan Negara which made Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar the first Malaysian space flight participant to be at the International Space Station (ISS) in October 2007. He carried with him 3 experimental packages namely cells (cancer cells and endothelial cells) by UKM and UiTM respectively, bacteria (by UKM and UM) and proteins for crystalisation (by UPM). The experiments were successful and the results have been presented at conferences and also published in various journals. Another one of the tangible outcomes is the establishment of a group of researchers trained or at least exposed to space science.
UMBI was very fortunate to be the first institution to send an experiment to the ISS even before the Program Angkasawan Negara. In 2006, the National Space Agency (ANGKASA) sponsored an experimental package in collaboration with the University of Colorado to the ISS via the US Shuttle. We sent the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (a small worm about 1 mm in length) to the ISS for a duration of 6 months. The aim was to study the effects of long term space flight in a worm model. The experiment was successfully returned and about 10% of the worms remained alive! Gene expression analysis was performed and the results reported in the journal Gravitational Biology and Space Science.
After the successful 2007 experiments via the Soyuz rocket, our ‘space scientists’ actually continued their interest in the space science component. Of course, our astronaut enjoyed much of the publicity being the first Malaysian in space. But what the public and the scientific community did not know was that the interest in space science continued to thrive.
From 2008-2013, the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) offered the protein crystallisation group from UPM (led by Professor Dr. Raja Noor Zaliha Raja Abd Rahman) opportunities for the subsequent 6 Soyuz missions and these were successfully completed. JAXA was actually very impressed with the Malaysian space science team. The C elegans group (led by the UMBI Director himself) continued to maintain links with the University of Colorado group as well as C elegans researchers within JAXA. The UiTM group (led by Professor Dr. Hapizah Nawawi) successfully conducted an experiment for the simulation for the mission to Mars with the Institute for Bio-Medical Problems (IBMP) in Russia.
UMBI also continued to participate in activities organised by the National Space Agency. A proposal for an experiments using C elegans was planned for an unmanned orbital flight in 2002 but a technical glitch caused this to be cancelled. In 2012, UMBI submitted a research proposal to ANGKASA to continue the study on C elegans in microgravity and to focus on further validating the effects of long term space flight on an animal model. The co-leader for this project is Dr. Neoh Hui Min from UMBI. Part of the grant was allocated to finance a Random Positioning Machine (RPM).
The RPM can be used as a microgravity simulator in a bioscience laboratory by randomly rotating the accommodated experiment package (cells, plants, worms, etc.) around the Earth’s gravity vector. The RPM will allow proof-of-concept experiments in zero gravity on the ground before sending a full experimental package to the ISS if there is an opportunity for a mission.
UMBI invites future space scientists to come and collaborate with us and plan proof of concept experiments for future missions to the International Space Station.