Centrifuges and Their Application for Biological Experiments in Space

Abstract

The need for an in-orbit 1×g control originated from the fact that Space radiation or other environmental factors of Space flight could not be excluded as cause for the effects on biological systems that were mainly interpreted as effects of the weightlessness environment. Indeed, in many experiments the 1×g reference centrifuge on board revealed the same data as the 1×g controls on ground, proving the lack of gravity was causing the results. In other cases, the reference centrifuge data were intermediate or clearly different to the ground data which was either due to interrupted 1×g conditions on board or to other, sometimes not well understood factors. This triggered also the development of sophisticated hardware allowing the start, i.e. the transition from 1×g to 0×g, or the termination of the experiment without stopping the centrifuge. Recently developed facilities provide also a complete life support system on the centrifuge rotor. Besides the in-flight 1×g control, acceleration experiments required a centrifuge for determination of threshold values in orbit.