"Tricorder" Checks for Unwanted ISS Microbes
Written by Nancy Atkinson
Astronauts on board the space station now have their very own tricorder. While this 21st century version isn't as versatile as its 24th century counterpart made famous in the Star Trek television series, it will help keep the ISS crew healthy. The real name of this device is LOCAD-PTS, short for Lab-On-a-Chip Application Development Portable Test System. It's a handheld biological lab specifically designed to detect and identify microbes on space station surfaces.
Wherever there are humans, there are also microbes. Biologists estimate that every human body has at least a trillion hitchhiking microbes, accounting for as much as 2% of a person's total mass. Most live in harmony with native human cells, but others cause illnesses.
LOCAD can currently detect E. coli, salmonella and fungi. Science@ NASA reports that some fungi can actually decompose electronics, and the ISS is full of electronics essential to maintaining the space station.
LOCAD uses specialized cartridges to find different types of microbes. By the end of the year new cartridges will be sent to the station that can detect staphylococcus and streptococcus.
Eventually scientists hope to have cartridges to detect all kinds of micro-organisms and chemical compounds, so that the device could be used to diagnose what kind of "bug" an astronaut might have if they become ill.
While the Star Trek tricorder could check vital signs and find alien life, LOCAD can be used on lunar missions, long duration stays on other planets, and also here on Earth to keep track of tiny lifeforms.
LOCAD actually looks more like the tricorder from Star Trek: the Next Generation.
Here's an image of the tricorder from the original Star Trek in the 1960's.
Original News Source: Science@NASA
Filed under: Astrobiology
Related stories on Universe Today
Comment policy: Be nice and brief. Don't advertise your stuff, or promote your personal theories. We'll delete any comments that break these policies. Click here for more details.
May 10th, 2008 at 5:55 am
Hopefully this tricorder thing works in our ground based hospitals.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:33 am
it could have appications in hospitals – though here in the UK you'd STILL have an 18 month wait to be tested!!
October 21st, 2008 at 6:28 am
Hi! cymbalta
April 15th, 2009 at 11:19 am
This is quite a hot info. I'll share it on Facebook.
April 23rd, 2009 at 4:35 am
Recently one of my friends started an obsession with the actor Nicholas Cage (mostly because their names are both Nicholas – sounds strange but he is strange and that isn't the point). After asking around the rest of my friends he seems to be a very controversial figure.
What does the forum think? do you love the all action superhero? Or do you hate the droning voice of the man who does nothing but action shooters?