Orbital Reef / Starlab / Noname Northrop Grumman Station

[mikegarrison]

Why would organs need to be grown in space anyway? All of our current organs grow right here in the Earth's gravitational field.

[AckSed]

25 minutes ago, mikegarrison said:

Why would organs need to be grown in space anyway? All of our current organs grow right here in the Earth's gravitational field.

They are usually surrounded by a pressure, nutrient and support structure: the human body.

If we bio-print organs in microgravity, we might get away with not including the dissolving scaffold that usually supports the cell culture and that needs to be custom-made. Most soft tissues will collapse under their own weight. Print in 0G, let them grow in solution for a few weeks and they become self-supporting. This makes a kidney or heart, say, much simpler to grow.

It's also an advantage if, when you're out there on the Moon or Mars and you suffer a kidney failure, need a new cornea and so on, you can culture new organs from the patient's own cells.

Stepping further out on the future-limb, you could bio-print polymers with synthetic biology.

Citation: Bioprinting in Microgravity: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.3c00195

 

[darthgently]

25 minutes ago, mikegarrison said:

Why would organs need to be grown in space anyway? All of our current organs grow right here in the Earth's gravitational field.

The results in microgravity have been much better apparently. 
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microgravity_bioprinting

[kerbiloid]

8 hours ago, darthgently said:

has at least a small habitat with a rotating staff of technicians and engineers available

+1
Cuz knowledge is power.

Spoiler

 

8 hours ago, tater said:

It depends on the actual requirement for 0 g, I suppose. Organs would probably not be so sensitive

+1!

Spoiler

 

8 hours ago, tater said:

but from what I've read about some crystal growing, etc, vibration is a huge problem.

+1!

Though, every time they tell it, I recall the

Spoiler

which don't disturb the crystal growing.

 

7 hours ago, AckSed said:

how many would work towards it because they heard 'astronaut' and not 'factory worker'?

If the station is for crew of 1, you would hire guards to repel the volunteers.

  

6 hours ago, AckSed said:

They are usually surrounded by a pressure, nutrient and support structure: the human body.

Currenly the organs are being grown in hydro-simulated zero-gravity.

Spoiler

 

[magnemoe]

On 9/20/2024 at 5:23 AM, AckSed said:

I'm wary of 'never' statements. Reusability didn't make sense until it eventually did. Then, with Starlink eating spare capacity, the launch party started.

Granted, commercial space stations will not make sense until someone sticks their neck out and it isn't immediately financially severed. Pharmaceutical research and manufacture and organ bio-printing might be an early way to keep the lights on. I'm pulling for perovskite solar panel or novel semi-conductor research, though.

Note that NASA's commercial space station would have an deal there NASA want to probably  add 2-3 modules and 4 astronauts to do science, this is making it an safe investment. 
The operators will do the ship and hotel services.  Its like renting an ship, but other actors can join, companies, nation or just tourists. 

Then some manages to do real manufacturing  it would become an separate station. 
For crystals and other stuff who require no vibrations. Have an free flying module. You could have it dock to an space station to set it up, do maintenance and transfer the product to an lander. 
 

[AckSed]

Oh yeah, thanks to that documentary, I now know what the 'can' on the end of the robot arm is for - it's a launch mechanism for smallsats. I was a bit confused when they called it an air-lock, but that is how it works: dock 'can' to docking port, equalise pressure, open airlock; load smallsats, close hatch, vent, attach robot arm, undock and use arm to point firing mechanism away from station.