7 research outputs found
A COMPACT IN VITRO TEST BENCH FOR CARDIOVASCULAR FLOW ANALYSIS FOR SPACE APPLICATION: FEASIBILITY STUDY
No full textAIM (Artery In Microgravity): An ICE Cubes Mission by University Students
No full textThe ICE Cubes Facility is a capable experiment platform on board the Columbus Module of the International Space Station that offers flexibility to host many different experiments. The ICE Cubes Facility is suited for any scientific research and technological demonstrator that requires the study of the effects of microgravity and radiation exposure in a pressurised volume. The ICE Cube Service is also open to different schooling levels (primary, secondary, universities) and to different STEAM curricula and offers University students (Master and PhD) the opportunity to design, develop, test and operate a real experiment for the ISS under the supervision of experts from the ICE Cube Service.The Artery In Microgravity (AIM) project is a 2U ICE Cubes experiment cube and the first experiment to be selected for the Orbit Your Thesis! programme of ESA Academy. The cube is expected to be launched on SpaceX-20 in early 2020. The project is being developed by an international group of students from ISAE-Supaero and Politecnico di Torino. The experiment will investigate coronary heart disease, the most common form of cardiovascular disease and the cause of approximately 9 million deaths every year. In view of the very long duration missions to come, such diseases may also affect healthy astronauts in space. The AIM cube is a test-bench for investigating haemodynamics in microgravity and will study the effects of microgravity on blood flow in the coronary artery with and without an implanted coronary stent and the impact of augmented radiation levels on metallic ion release from coronary stents.The experimental setup consists of a closed hydraulic loop containing two models of a coronary artery in series. An electric pump and reservoir will control the flow of a blood-mimicking fluid through the system. One model of the coronary artery will contain a coronary stent. The pressure of the fluid will be studied along its path using a series of pressure sensors and a camera will visualise the flow. Ground tests will be conducted concurrently in order to perform a comparison between the on-ground behaviour and the behaviour in microgravity.The paper will showcase the design and development of the AIM experiment cube, the results of testing and the educational applications of theICE Cubes Facility. The full data and results will be available after the completion of the mission which is expected to be between March and June 2020
Radiation Analysis of CubeSat NIMPH
No full textThe CubeSat standard has inspired a lot of engineers, researchers and space industries because of its simplicity and its previous success stories. There are various applications of CubeSats such as remote sensing, telecommunications, earth observations as well as interplanetary science missions. In recent times, newer telecommunication technologies are developed and they are needed to be tested in space conditions. Since it is a difficult task to simulate the space environment, CubeSats are used as a test bed for the newer technologies. In order to use the Microwave photonic technology in larger satellites, the degradation of these components due to radiation are needed to be studied. Inspired by the simplicity of CubeSat's, Thales Alenia Space proposed a project CubeSat NIMPH (Nanosatellite to Investigate Microwave Photonics) in collaboration with the CNES, ISAE-SUPAERO and other French Universities. This research presents the process of developing a physical solution to the critical aspects of radiation in the CubeSat NIMPH. This work also shows the accumulated radiation dose through computational methods like Sector analysis and Monte-Carlo methods using TRAD FASTRAD software. Results of the analysis provide the maximum dose level and the need for radiation shield for the platform. Based on the detailed review of results, the overall configuration is chosen and the Erbium Doped Fiber Amplier (EDFA) is made sure that it reaches a cumulative dose of 20 Krad
Obsidians from the Kerkennah Islands (eastern Tunisia) and the PIXE elemental compositions of the Mediterranean peralkaline obsidians
No full textInternational audienceThe provenance of 37 obsidians from the Kerkennah Islands (central Mediterranean Sea) was determined by PIXE. It is shown that they came from the two main obsidian sources, Balata dei Turchi and Lago di Venere, of the Pantelleria Island. A comparison of the PIXE elemental composition of geological vs. archaeological obsidians of central and western Mediterranean shows that their sources present elemental compositions homogeneous enough to make possible sourcing studies. However, a comparison between the distributions of geological and archaeological obsidians chemistry shows that the PIXE source qualifications do not cover yet the whole of their internal variations
AIM (Artery in Microgravity): Design and Development of an ICE Cubes Mission,
No full textThe Artery In Microgravity (AIM) project is the first experiment to be selected for the “Orbit Your Thesis!” programme
of ESA Academy. It is a 2U experiment cube designed for the ICE Cubes facility on board of the International Space
Station. The experiment is expected to be launched on SpaceX-20 in early 2020. The project is being developed by an
international group of students from ISAE-SUPAERO and Politecnico di Torino, under the supervision of the ISAESUPAERO and Politecnico di Torino staff.
The experiment is a test-bench for investigating haemodynamics in microgravity focusing on coronary heart disease, the
most common form of cardiovascular disease and the cause of approximately 9 million deaths every year. Coronary heart
disease is caused by stenosis of the coronary artery due to the build-up of plaque. While the development of atherosclerosis
is not fully understood, the primary event seems to be subtle and repeated injury to the artery walls through various
mechanisms including physical stresses from flow disturbances as well as from systemic and biological risk factors. In the
presence of severe stenosis, patients are treated with the implantation of one or more coronary stents, which are tubular
scaffolds devoted to restore and maintain myocardial perfusion. The coronary stenting procedure is largely applied (e.g., 1.8
million stents per year implanted in USA)
In view of the impact that coronary artery disease has on humans, as well as of the increasing number of people that will
be involved in space flights in the future, the way astronauts in space coronary hemodynamics is affected by the absence of
gravity in the presence of stenosis or of stenting needs to be investigated in depth. In addition, as most stents are metallic
objects, the radiation exposure in space might interact with their surface, altering blood flow, inducing particles release and
ultimately leading to stent failure.
Therefore, the aim of AIM is to start studying the vascular haemodynamics in a stented and a stenosed coronary artery
on Earth and in microgravity and the stent-radiation coupling. This will allow to learn about the effect gravity plays on
coronary artery haemodynamics, the effects of microgravity and radiation on the performance of implantable devices and
ultimately the risks of myocardial infarction to astronauts on long-distance spaceflight.
The experimental setup consists of a closed hydraulic loop containing two models of a coronary artery in series. An
electric pump and reservoir will control the flow of a blood-mimicking fluid through the system. One model of the coronary
artery will contain a coronary stent. The pressure of the fluid will be studied along its path using a series of pressure sensors
and a camera will visualise the flow. The same experiments will be repeated on the ground with the same conditions as the
in-flight model for comparison.
The paper will outline in detail the design and development of the AIM experiment cube and the results of testing. The
full data and results will be available after the completion of the mission which is expected to be between March and June
2020
Design concepts for the Cherenkov Telescope Array CTA: An advanced facility for ground-based high-energy gamma-ray astronomy
No full textGround-based gamma-ray astronomy has had a major breakthrough with the impressive results obtained using systems of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has a huge potential in astrophysics, particle physics and cosmology. CTA is an international initiative to build the next generation instrument, with a factor of 5-10 improvement in sensitivity in the 100 GeV-10 TeV range and the extension to energies well below 100 GeV and above 100 TeV. CTA will consist of two arrays (one in the north, one in the south) for full sky coverage and will be operated as open observatory. The design of CTA is based on currently available technology. This document reports on the status and presents the major design concepts of CTA. © 2011 The Author(s)
Libre accès aux publications et sciences ouvertes en débat
No full text« Libre accès aux publications et sciences ouvertes en débat »…Le titre du dossier coordonné par Ghislaine Chartron et Joachim Schöpfel dit bien les choses. De fait, les Sciences de l’Information et de la Communication « sont doublement concernées par l’Open access, en tant que communauté scientifique et en tant que discipline intéressée par la production et la circulation de l’information au sein des structures et organisations scientifiques », en tant que sujet et objet en quelque sorte. Fermeture ou ouverture ? S’il y a fermeture, secret pour dire autrement, c’est qu’il y a quelque chose à cacher. Que le rire est le propre de l’Homme, par exemple. Ou bien que la Terre tourne autour du Soleil. Mais, là déjà, un scientifique, Galilée, a… tourné la difficulté : au lieu de parler Latin, il se met à parler Italien, histoire de mobiliser des alliés, les ingénieurs de Venise, entre autres… [en savoir +
