LANGSTON, Okla. — (Feb. 13, 2020) — DreamUp, the leading provider space-based educational opportunities, and sister-company Nanoracks, the leading provider of commercial access to space, today have announced a joint effort with Oklahoma Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Langston University, to fly their research to the International Space Station. These efforts will contribute to ongoing microgravity research that will help expand human presence forward to the Moon, and eventually Mars. DreamUp, Nanoracks, and Langston University announced this program today in a signing ceremony, alongside NASA Administrator, Jim Bridenstine.
Langston University has partnered with Johnson Space Center to develop natural countermeasures — through extracts from plants — that they predict will help to restore astronauts’ immune system in spaceflight conditions. This research, led by biochemist Dr. Byron Quinn, is funded by the NASA Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) Institutional Research Opportunity (MIRO).
Immune system dysregulation has been found to reactivate multiple latent viruses in astronauts during space shuttle missions and the researchers at Langston University believe they have found a way to naturally treat this through the use of medicinal phytochemicals found in plant extracts.
DreamUp, via Nanoracks, has brought over 400 student experiments to the International Space Station to date.
“Our mission at DreamUp is to inspire more students to research in microgravity and to build the next generation workforce in a space-faring nation,” says DreamUp Manager of Partnerships and Outreach, Lauren Milord. “Increasing access to space-based educational research and opportunities for more learners, including those not traditionally represented in Space Station research, is a key part of our mission, and will be what helps us get to the Moon by 2024!”
Langston University researchers will aim to design a research payload for the Space Station after an initial study phase with Nanoracks, assessing feasibility and providing spaceflight options for the biology research being conducted. The payload has the potential to be the largest sized research payload that Nanoracks has flown to stay inside the Space Station (4U x 2U – or about 40 cm by 20 cm).
“Thank you to everyone at Langston University, the NASA MUREP office, and to NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine for celebrating this historic moment with DreamUp and Nanoracks. We can’t wait to bring your dreams to space.”
For additional updates, follow @nanoracks and @dreamup_space on Twitter and for media inquiries, please email Abby Dickes, adickes@nanoracks.com
About DreamUp
Based in Washington, DC, DreamUp is the first company bringing space into the classroom and the classroom into space. Uniquely positioned to inspire kids globally and engage them through scientific discoveries in space, DreamUp aims to foster an educational community where space-based research and projects will be available to all learners of all ages. DreamUp has a proven track record with more than 400 student research payloads from around the world launched on SpaceX and Northrop Grumman rockets to the International Space Station via a partnership with Nanoracks and its Space Act Agreement with NASA. For more information, visit https://www.dreamup.org/.
About Nanoracks
Nanoracks LLC, an XO Markets company, is the world’s first commercial space station company with an existing customer base. Nanoracks believes commercial space utilization will enable innovation through in-space manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, fiber optics – and more, allow for transformational Earth observation, and make space a key player in finding the solution to Earth’s problems.
Today, the company offers low-cost, high-quality solutions to the most pressing needs for satellite deployment, basic and educational research, and more –in over 30 nations worldwide. Since 2009, Texas-based Nanoracks has truly created new markets and ushered in a new era of in-space-services, dedicated to making space just another place to do business.
In 2017, the Company announced their long-term plans via the Nanoracks Space Outpost Program. This program is dedicated to the repurposing of the upper stages of launch vehicles in-space and converting these structures into commercial habitats, both humanly and robotically tended, throughout the solar system.
XO Markets, the world’s first commercial space holding company, includes Nanoracks LLC, DreamUp, Nanoracks Space Outpost Europe (Nanoracks-Italy), and Nanoracks UAE.
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