| The history of the UCSD NASA Lab's involvement in flight
research, or experiments aboard NASA's Space Shuttle is extensive. It began
during the SpaceLab Life Sciences experiments aboard STS-40 and STS-58 and
continued with the Life and Microgravity Sciences experiment aboard STS-78, the
Neurolab experiment aboard STS-90 and the STS-95 mission culminating with the
PuFF experiment aboard the International Space Station.
Lab researchers have been equally active conducting an array of ground
experiments, often in parallel with those flying high above the Earth.
Frequently, these experiments have given lab researchers first hand experience with
weightlessness aboard NASA's KC-135 microgravity research plane. While floating above the Earth lab researchers
have studied the effects of gravity on the deposition of particulate matter in the
lungs.
Relatively recent advances in microcomputer technology have also allowed investigators to
begin to build complex computer models of the human lung. These models allow
us to simulate the effects of gravity on the lung and discover new and potentially exciting ways to study those
effects without ever leaving our laboratories. |
