2024 Volume 2 Article ID: 150
Given the importance of ensuring a sustainable food supply in space, there is a growing interest in the research of life science experiments such as plant cultivation and cell culture under microgravity conditions. In this study, we propose a new compact life science experiment device, AMAZ, which incorporates freedom of installation in the space station and an astronaut-friendly design concept. First, the fundamental design and design guidelines for the entire system and each part, including the conceptual design, are described. Unlike similar existing devices in the ISS, AMAZ employs an artificial gravity generation mechanism by a centrifuge without a turntable. In addition, the motor arrangement is designed to reduce the size of the device to 0.18 m in diameter and 0.40 m in length. Furthermore, based on these basic designs, a prototype machine using optical fabrication will be fabricated to demonstrate some of the functions, including the rotation mechanism. A prototype is manufactured utilizing stereolithography technique to validate certain functions, such as the rotation mechanism. The initial operational tests successfully demonstrate that the artificial gravity values could be changed as per the set values by controlling the number of rotations.
