Galactic—005 (1)

Astronauts

Crew

This experiment serves as a stepping stone to support astronauts with insulin-dependent diabetes and demonstrates a capability necessary for maintenance therapy and hyperglycemic states in insulindependent people with diabetes. This human-tended experiment includes two commercially available insulin pens, which will each be secured in a custom 3D-printed container during flight. During the flight, Tuva will retain the insulin pens in his flight suit, dial an insulin dose, and dispense insulin from each pen into a collection container to study the accuracy of dose dispensation in microgravity. Commercial spaceflight and the research flown on these missions are opening space to people with diabetes and those who previously have not been eligible to fly to space.

Human-tended astronomy missions from suborbital platforms are largely unexplored with great potential for Earth observation and imagery of objects in space. The Xybion camera is an innovative wide-field visible and ultraviolet imager used for astronomical experiments on two Space Shuttle missions. On a future NASA-funded suborbital flight, Alan will operate the camera to compare the efficacy of doing onboard astronomy on VSS Unity to its efficacy on the Space Shuttle. For the ‘Galactic 05’ mission, Alan flew with a full-sized foam mockup of this camera for training and risk-reduction practice purposes before the NASA-funded flight.