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DAISY: Oh hey... you caught me.
I’m a bit of a germophobe.

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I hate dirty surface areas...

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But do you want to know who
else is that way...

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...the astronauts on the
International Space Station.

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And thanks to some new
technology, they are going to

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have the cleanest station in
the whole galaxy.

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It’s the latest tech news...
from space, next on Real World

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? [music] ?

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DAISY: NASA has a new
technology that is getting

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attention from the highest
ranks...

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PRESIDENT OBAMA: Any of the
young people have another

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question?
YOUNG PERSON: Have you found

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any life forms or any plants
out in space.

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PRESIDENT OBAMA: That’s a good
question. Any, uh... Any life

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forms out there, other than you
guys?

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SANDRA MAGNAS: We actually did
an experiment on this mission

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to take a swab or a sample of
the surface of the EVA,

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the space walker’s glove, both
before and after the

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space walk. And that’s a...

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that was a sort of
demonstration of the types of

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technology we’ll be able to use
on the moon and Mars for the

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same purpose to try and see if
we can determine what sort of

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bacteria or microorganisms are
living in the various

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environments we’re going to
encounter. We unfortunately,

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haven’t really found anything
here. I think we’ll have much

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more success at finding new
types of life and different

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structures when we go to places
like moon and Mars and moons of

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Titans and other types of
environments.

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PRESIDENT OBAMA:
Excellent question.

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DAISY: The program they’re
referring to is called LOCAD.

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LOCAD is Lab on a Chip
Application Development.

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The technology employs a small
amount of fluids and involves

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behavior, precise control and
manipulation

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of those fluids on a very small
scale.

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LISA MONACO: This is actually a
microfluidic chip.

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It’s um... It’s made out of
glass.

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DAISY: Dr. Lisa Monaco is LOCAD
scientist at Marshall Space

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Flight Center, in Huntsville,
Alabama.

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LISA: And the way they make
these is by using all the same

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technologies they use to make
integrated circuits.

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DAISY: Like computer chips,
except instead of information

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traveling along the circuit,
it’s little bits of fluid.

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LISA: And if you look real
closely, up to the light,

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you see all the tiny little
channels in there and those are

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the channels where we have
chemical reactions going

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on and can do analyses.

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DAISY: This technology is
perfect for the International

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Space Station, where astronauts
have to constantly monitor

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their environment to make sure
it stays clean

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and free of harmful bacteria.

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LISA: Your sample size is very
small. And what’s really good,

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especially when you’re on the
space station, is all your

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solutions are contained. So
you’ve already got everything

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that you need to do the
experiment, right on the chip.

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DAISY: And that’s huge, because
pre-chip technology involves

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taking a sample, and then
analyzing it,

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using a variety of chemicals.

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In a case like this, you’d have
to take the sample to a lab for

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analysis. You might not know
results for weeks.

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This is an issue, because
bacteria multiply

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exponentially. One germ turns
into two, two into four,

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four into eight, and so on...

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and this can happen pretty
quickly.

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In the right environment,
bacteria multiply once every

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20 minutes. That means one
turns into eight in an hour...

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more than 16 million in 8
hours.

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Exponential multiplication can
be calculated by multiplying

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the initial amount, A by 1 plus
the growth rate, in this case,

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1 to the power of x, which is
the number of intervals.

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So in our example, 1 times 1
plus 1, to the 24th power,

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which is how many intervals the
bacteria would double itself

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by, over 8 hours. So 2 to the
24th power, or

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16,777,216.

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So obviously it’s vital to
address issues quickly on the

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space station, which is why the
LOCAD system is built

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for speed and convenience.

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LISA: This is called the
swabbing tool, and the

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astronaut on board would just
take the packet, like a bubble

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packet, and pull out all the
items they would need,

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easy to assemble. And the
astronaut only needs to go over

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and go to the area of interest,
the crew member, and do a swab,

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and then place this cartridge,
which has the reagents needed

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for the chemical reaction into
the unit, and you just simply

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dispense your volume right into
the reservoir well. And then

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you press enter and within 15
minutes, you get a reading.

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DAISY: This is being used on
the station currently, for

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technology demonstration. Which
basically means they are

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testing it out, to make sure it
works up there.

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LISA: We’ve done it many times.
We’ve had many crew members

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sample, at their desire, all
over the space station.

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DAISY: And the results...

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LISA: The ISS is kept very
clean. So they have routine

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cleaning procedures. And when
it’s a material or surface

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that’s easily wiped, we’ve
found that it’s typically

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clean. There have been a couple
surprises.

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Some areas that might have
padded fabric, that doesn’t

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get a routine wipe, that show
bacterial signatures.

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DAISY: Speaking of bacterial
signatures, my lab results

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are in... this doesn’t look
good.

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This technology could have
dramatic uses in places other

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than space, too, like in
medicine, where your doctor

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could test your blood and get
results almost immediately.

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But for now, scientists and
engineers continue to develop

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the technology to make it a
useful component on

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the space station.

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? [music] ?

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