The SpaceX Dragon spacecraftsuccessfully connectedto the Harmony module yesterday , bringing to the International Space Station ( ISS ) a bounty of nation - of - the - artistic creation scientific experiments , supply , and also a sweet dainty for the astronauts .
The module has freezers equipped to hold samples down to Earth , but it would not be efficient to transport those up empty , so the resupply team stocked those with coffee , vanilla , and frosting season ice pick . The cherry tree on top of the regular preparation .
The dessert special obstetrical delivery could have also been inspired by the fantabulous backronym of one of the new experiment . ISS - CREAM , or theInternational Space Station Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass , will analyse cosmic light beam and hopefully answer questions about their descent . High - get-up-and-go cosmic beam are thought to mostly form in supernovae but scientists are still unsure if and in what amount these are produced by other reference . The advanced detector will try and mold out the chronicle of cosmic shaft in the Milky Way .
The astronauts will also be testingKestrel Eye , a young microsatellite equipped with an optical imagination system . The investigating will assess if this approach could be utile for a more extensive Earth - monitoring system from distance . Also , being microsatellites they can be manufacture and send into sphere for less money .
The crowd will also conduct important biological experimentation . One of them will sharpen on grow a especial protein , Leucine - rich repetition kinase 2 ( LRRK2 ) , in microgravity stipulation . Scientists believe that the protein can dally a function in Parkinson ’s disease and they require to study it well . Since the ISS is in unremitting free - fall , nothing there has to fight the pesky effects of gravitation so the proteins can be grown in larger and better shapes .
like reasoning is behind another experimentation , this one about grow lung tissue from stem turn cubicle . Scientists will grow generalized stem cells into specialized lung cells and take down whether gravity ( or a want of it ) changes how quickly the tissue grows .
This was the twelfth commercial-grade resupply commission to the ISS and delivered almost 3,000 kilogram ( 6,400 pounds ) of stock and scientific payload . Dragon will now be loaded with sampling and returned to Earth in mid - September .
