The LIFT Module: A Modular Fixation Platform for Biological Research on Sounding Rockets

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Biological experiments under altered gravity conditions as encountered on sounding rockets often require automated in-flight chemical fixation under the challenging environmental and operational constraints, as accompanying any spaceflight mission. Enabling in-flight fixation while maintaining laboratory-equivalent cultivation conditions from ground handling to recovery poses significant challenges for reliability and reproducibility of experiment scenarios. A common flight-qualified architecture can address these constraints by enforcing controlled environmental and operational execution while decoupling sample-dependent fixation configurations through modular payload integration. This work describes a reusable, automated and standardized fixation payload platform designed to host interchangeable, pre-qualified chemical fixation payloads for biological experiments on a variety of platforms to achieve altered gravity. The module provides a standardized mechanical, thermal and electrical architecture for the integration and operation of experiments employing either adherent or suspension-based cells within a single flight-qualified unit, independent of the specific fixation configuration required. Hardware and operational performance were qualified within the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) Materialphysikalische Experimente unter Schwerelosigkeit (MAPHEUS®) sounding rocket program. Laminar In-flight Fixation Technology (LIFT) was successfully flown across several missions and payload configurations, in-flight data demonstrate reliable execution of fixation procedures, stable thermal regulation, a pressure-stabilized internal environment and automated housekeeping data acquisition. The presented work establishes LIFT as a versatile, spaceflight-proven module to carry out a wide variety of cell culture experiments, allowing customizable in-flight fixation of samples as well as their monitoring within a common architecture.