Exobiosphere signed a contract with Voyager Technologies to fly its automated, miniaturized lab to the ISS.
Under the partnership, announced today, Voyager Technologies Europe will be the mission integrator for the Luxembourg-based space biotech firm to conduct research aboard the orbiting habitat.
How it works: Exobiosphere has designed an Orbital High-Throughput Screening Device—an automated mini lab that fits into standard mid-deck lockers, aboard crewed or uncrewed space stations.
The devices can autonomously keep organ cells alive, and deliver therapeutics. By taking astronauts out of the loop, the tech is intended to allow more experiments to head to orbit—and speed up how quickly results are delivered back to Earth.
“Six months in space is equivalent to a decade on Earth in disease progression,” Exobiosphere CEO Kyle Acierno told Payload. “That means space could be the best place to study how diseases progress, and if you’re studying a variety of therapeutics, you can find the results much faster.”
Early customers include hospitals and academic institutions, according to Acierno, but the company plans to expand to fly biotech firms “who want to accelerate or differentiate their research.”
“Ideally, we would be able to attract big pharma, and they have experimented already…but I still think there’s more work to show them the value,” he said.
Blast off: In addition to the deal with Voyager, Exobiosphere is integrated into Vast’s Haven-1 space station, which is set to fly next year.
Last week, Exobiosphere signed a contract with ESA to operate biotech experiments aboard Haven-1. Under that contract, the company will provide ESA an end-to-end mission, including selecting science experiments, preparing for the mission, overseeing the experiments in orbit, and returning data to Earth.
Far out: Exobiosphere also has ambitions beyond LEO, Acierno said, including studying what NASA’s plans for a permanent lunar base could mean for astronaut health.
“We’re developing a system to study disease progression on the Moon, because the longest a human has spent on the lunar surface is 72 hours,” he said. “This system would be able to help us understand how humans can survive in orbit, on the Moon, and eventually on Mars.”
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