A batch of virus-like particles developed by Taiwanese researchers were yesterday launched into space by Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX), as part of a Commercial Resupply Service (CRS) mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
The CRS-24 mission — using SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and a Falcon 9 rocket — launched at about 5:07am from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The National Synchrontron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC), which is affiliated to the Ministry of Science and Technology, cultivated the particles.
Photo: screen grab from Youtube
The batch would stay on the space station for one month for crystallization experiments, the center said last month.
The delivery was coordinated by Taiwan’s space service supplier HelioX Cosmos Co (陽翼先進科技) and Japan’s Space BD Inc, which was appointed as the sole private partner by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) because of its high-quality protein crystal growth experiment service.
It is the first time that Taiwan has conducted such an experiment, thanks to the commercialization of space technology, HelioX Cosmos founder and chief executive Bill Chang (張懷謙) said yesterday, adding that JAXA had conducted similar experiments for nearly a decade.
It was moving to watch the batch of particles lift off into the space — very different from watching other launch missions, NSRRC deputy director Chen Chun-jung (陳俊榮) said yesterday, adding that he hopes to one day watch a launch mission on site.
The particles would crystallize while in space, and after being returned to Earth, they would be kept in liquid nitrogen at minus-196°C and be sent back to the center in Hsinchu, he said.
“We expect the quality of the particles’ crystallization to elevate significantly in a gravity-free environment, in comparison with that seen in general laboratories on Earth,” Chen said.
With better crystallization, researchers can better analyze the viruses’ atomic structures and improve understanding of their pathogenic mechanisms, he said.
After the particles are returned to the center, researchers plan to use high-intensity X-ray and protein crystallography technology at the center’s Taiwan Photon Source facility to observe changes in the particles, the NSRRC said, adding that it hopes to make breakthroughs in precision medicine and pandemic-prevention technology.
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