This past weekend saw SpaceX's Dragon spaceship return to Earth with cargo and a set of valuable information for future projects.
The Dragon carried close to 5,000 pounds of supplies - including space suit batteries and a 3D printer - to the Expedition 41 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS), where it spent a little over a month collecting results for science experiments, according to PC Magazine.
The results brought back on Saturday were from a variety of experiments, with one involving rodents and another focused on testing the effects of microgravity on arugula plants. NASA is using the arugula experiment so they can figure out how they can grow plants for food to support future human colonies on the Moon, Mars, and other planets.
"This mission enabled research critical to achieving NASA's goal of long-duration human spaceflight in deep space," said Sam Scimemi, director of the ISS at NASA. "Investigations in the returned cargo could aid in the development of more efficient solar cells and semiconductor-based electronics, the development of plants better suited for space, and improvements in sustainable agriculture."
The mice experiment, called Rodent Research-1, focused on how microgravity affects animals so researchers can see how it will affect the health of human beings, CNN reported.
A total of 255 science experiments were delivered to the ISS during the Dragon's mission, which is the fourth of 12 resupply missions to the space station that are planned through 2016. SpaceX has scheduled its next flight for Dec. 1st to bring crew supplies and cargo to the ISS. Among this collection of supplies is the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS), a laser tool designed to measure clouds and pollution, dust, smoke, and other particles in the atmosphere.
