Biology experiments in space seek to increase our understanding of what happens to life beyond Earth and how we can safely send life beyond Earth. Spaceflight is associated with many (mal)adaptations in physiology, including decline in musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, vestibular, and immune systems. Biological experiments in space are inherently challenging to implement. Development of hardware and validation of experimental conditions are critical to ensure the collection of high-quality data. The model organism Caenorhabditis elegans has been studied in space for more than 20 years to better understand spaceflight-induced (patho)physiology, particularly spaceflight-induced muscle decline. These experiments have used a variety of hardware configurations. Despite this, hardware used in the past was not available for our most recent experiment, the Molecular Muscle Experiment (MME). Therefore, we had to design and validate flight hardware for MME. MME provides a contemporary example of many of the challenges faced by researchers conducting C. elegans experiments onboard the International Space Station. Here, we describe the hardware selection and validation, in addition to the ground-based experiment scientific validation testing. These experiences and operational solutions allow others to replicate and/or improve our experimental design on future missions.

中文翻译：

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分子肌肉实验：未来天体生物学空间实验的硬件和操作经验。


太空生物学实验旨在加深我们对地球以外生命发生的情况以及如何安全地将生命送出地球的理解。太空飞行与许多生理适应（不良）有关，包括肌肉骨骼、心血管、前庭和免疫系统的衰退。太空中的生物实验本来就具有挑战性。硬件的开发和实验条件的验证对于确保收集高质量数据至关重要。为了更好地了解太空飞行引起的（病理）生理学，特别是太空飞行引起的肌肉衰退，模型生物秀丽隐杆线虫已在太空中进行了 20 多年的研究。这些实验使用了多种硬件配置。尽管如此，过去使用的硬件不适用于我们最近的实验，即分子肌肉实验（MME）。因此，我们必须为MME设计和验证飞行硬件。 MME 提供了一个当代例子，说明了研究人员在国际空间站上进行线虫实验时所面临的许多挑战。在这里，我们描述了硬件选择和验证，以及地面实验科学验证测试。这些经验和操作解决方案使其他人能够复制和/或改进我们在未来任务中的实验设计。