A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soars upward after its liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 4:55 p.m. EDT on Thursday, March 21, on the company’s 30th Commercial Resupply Services mission for the agency to the International Space Station. Onboard is more more than 2,800 kg of cargo, including New Zealand's first payload: a protein crystallisation experiment called 'Lucy'. Photo: NASA/Glenn Benson
On 21 March 2024, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). Among the 2,800 kg of supplies was a small cube named 'Lucy' - New Zealand's first science payload to reach the ISS.
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Growing protein crystals in space
'Lucy' is a 10x10x10 cm mini laboratory. It's designed to take advantage of the unique conditions available in microgravity that enable better protein crystallisation.
Proteins are teeny tiny molecules, that can't be viewed under a regular microscope. So, one way to determine their exact atomic structure is to grow nice, uniform crystals containing many protein molecules.
Dr Sarah Kessans with the protein crystallisation experiments that have been to the International Space Station. Photo: Claire Concannon / RNZ
X-ray light is then shone on these crystals, and the resulting scatter pattern will reveal the exact position of each atom in the molecule.
Understanding protein structure is often the first step in the drug development pipeline - take for example, the Covid-19 spike protein that allows the virus to bind and enter our cells. Having the structure of this protein meant scientists could work to develop antivirals and vaccines.
The spike protein was crystallised on Earth, as many proteins are. But some can be tricky to crystallise, and that's where microgravity can help.
Associate Professor Sarah Kessans, of the School of Product Design in the University of Canterbury, has a background in biochemistry. Ever since she got to the top 50 in NASA's astronaut programme, she has been fascinated by the potential of doing science in space. Her team have been working with others from Arizona State University and Christchurch companies Asteria Engineering Consultancy and Intranel to develop Lucy.
In low Earth orbit, the ISS is essentially in freefall, setting up microgravity conditions that are very different to what we have on Earth.
"You don't have sedimentation forces, you don't have flotation forces, and critically you don't have what's called convection currents," says Sarah.
Dr Sarah Kessans with the 'Lucy' team preparing the payload for the International Space Station. Photo: Sarah Kessans
Heavy particles don't sink, light particles don't float, heat differences don't drive particle movement. Years of ISS research have shown that these stable fluid conditions enable proteins to form much more uniform crystals than they typically do on Earth.
But in the past, this research required a lot of astronaut time and involvement, making it costly and slow.
Sarah's goal is to develop a high-throughput mini-lab that can provide a commercial service for those who have a need to crystallise tricky proteins.
Launching Lucy
The work is currently supported by a $9.87 million five-year MBIE Endeavour Fund award.
The New Zealand team behind 'Lucy' at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, US. Photo: Dave Sanders
The team are in their second year, with the launch of Lucy in 2024 on a commercial ISS resupply mission being a major milestone.
That was a pilot test of the remotely monitored hardware and software, with a single protein and a single crystallisation condition. Travel to the ISS was coordinated by Axiom Space, who also allowed a second 'bonus' payload, containing different tricky proteins from various researchers around New Zealand.
The next version, which will launch on a cargo resupply mission to the ISS in 2026, will be bigger: the size of a large shoebox. It's designed to fit into the ISS's express rack system and will allow for hundreds of crystallisation conditions to be tested simultaneously.
Handover of 'Lucy' for transport to the International Space Station. Photo: Dave Sanders
If that works well, the team will iterate and go again, with another - and last - ISS trip planned for 2028. In 2030 the ISS will come to an end, and will be 'deorbited' - that is, pushed off its orbit to break up in Earth's atmosphere. All going to plan, Sarah hopes that they'll then work with Axiom Space to develop a protein crystallisation service on their new commercial space station.
Entering the low Earth orbit economy
Low Earth orbit is defined as the region 200 km to 2000 km up, where the ISS currently orbits. This is considered near enough to Earth for convenient communication and resupply.
NASA envisions a future that takes advantage of the unique conditions in this region in space to produce goods and services - the low Earth orbit economy. The ISS will be replaced by several commercial space stations.
The International Space Station. Photo: NASA
With her eyes on this future, Sarah envisions that her team will partner with a company that already perform protein crystallisation on Earth, to provide a space-based add-on service. Though she can't say yet what the cost of this service would be.
And with microgravity crystallisation of some therapeutic proteins already shown to produce benefits, Sarah and her team are not the only ones looking at commercial protein crystallisation opportunities in space.
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