This experiment was designed for three purposes: to implement health care of a Japanese astronaut during flight; to investigate the mechanism of space motion sickness and cardiovascular deconditioning by monitoring the physiological variables such as ECG, blood pressure, skin potential reflex, and respiratory wave; and to produce a health care database for the Japanese astronaut.
A tendency to slight dehydration was observed two days before launch and immediately after landing (R+0) from the Hct values. Slightly increased serum CPK was also noticed at R+0, although there was no significant abnormality of blood and urine findings before and after flight. The heart rate and blood pressure increased remarkably during the first flight day. However, these values returned gradually to normal by the third flight day. This is considered to be a cardiovascular system adaptive process during flight. The Japanese PS had symptoms of space motion sickness on the first day, but these symptoms were improved from the second day, and did not affect his performance. Good correlationship between coefficient of variance (CV) value and the motion sickness score of Graybiel was observed except on MET day 0. This suggests that the CV value may be utilized as an objective index of space motion sickness. Body weight decreased on launch day, but was the same as on R+0 and decreased slightly 5 days after landing. Increased heart rate response in the stand test was observed after flight. This might mean that the J-PS's cardiovascular system was slightly influenced by the one-week space flight. Generally, these results suggest that health care of the Japanese astronaut was properly performed during flight. Moreover, an important database was created for health care of Japanese astronauts.

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FMPT/L-1 experiment aimed to study endocrine and metabolic changes of payload specialist during Spacelab-J. Since the project employed the payload specialist, it was necessary to submit many documents for the execution of the study. This article summarizes the important document such as Human Research Master Protocol and the problem encountered before launch.

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Several problems encountered in the carp experiment of the FMPT / Spacelab-J were summarized. They included 1) less capability of the filter unit which was equipped in the life support system, 2) carp supply and water incompatibility at Kennedy Space Center, 3) complicate arrangements for the late access of carp loading, and 4) concept learning of animal rights concerned.

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Free flow electrophoresis experiment was flown on SL-J(FMPT) to develop technology to separate proteins and cells under microgravity. Samples to be separated were selected from the view that the experiment is to indicate the advantage of microgravity environment for separating those mixture. The separation chamber was 100 mm high x 60 mm width x 4 mm thick, and was attached with obtical absorption measurement device. Electric signals aqquired on board were down linked, and are converted to the visual graph of width vs optical abosorption in POCC. The number of fractions to be recovered was selected by POCC, and was communicated orally to crew on board. Document of experiment procedure was prepared for flight crew was found to be inadequate for crew on the ground for monitoring experiment. A document for ground crew was developed to meet the need. Lap top computor was attempted to be used in simulation to controlling the flight experiment, but was also found to be innadequate. Pencil and paper were found to be more useful. The desk space in the POCC was not sufficient for using those sheets of papers.
Samples as the model of cells was the mixture of Salmonella typhimurium variants. Electrophoretic mobilities of those variants were measured. One of them was found to have zero mobility. This variant was selected since this should be a good marker for analyzing the data. The variant is not expected to move by the electric field, and the position of this variant should reflect the electro-osmosis in the separation chamber.
Optical absorption measurement system did not function properly in the flight experiment. Preliminary experiment planned was eliminated from flight experiment procedures. Sample correction was made at the ports selected based on the ground experiment carried out prior to the launch. Recovered samples were analyzed. The lack of optical data made it unable to analyze the drift of buffer flow, and thus to determine the extent of electro-osmosis.

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There are several problems and issues to be re-considered after the mission SL-J in our experiments. They are 1) Long term delay disturbed to keep sprit high from the viewpoint of continuous scientific activityies, 2) Difficulties for the changing the specifications for the experimental devices, such as LIS, LIC, and PMS, 3) how difficult to change the part of configurations for the data acquisitions, such as temporal data downlink dupulications, and 4) how to change the experimental operation on board by specifying the reasonable evidences which has quite scientific meanings. These problems which should be solved in the future mission may be discussed more frequently and more seriously.

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This experiment was conducted using the microgravity environment in space to prepare single crystals of good crystallinity in which protein molecules are very well ordered. Five kinds of protein samples: hen egg-white lysozyme (2 different crystallization conditions), horse skeletal myoglobin, ω-Amino acid: pyruvate aminotransferase from Pseudomonas sp. F-126, and Rhizopus niveus lipase, were used for crystallization, which was carried out according to the batch method for 7days at 20°C. Among these protein samples, crystals were produced from the four samples and the particularly noteworthy results could be obtained from lysozyme at pH4.5 and ω-amino acid:pyruvate aminotransferase. In this space experiment, crystal growth proceeded at a slower rate than expected, compared with a control experiment on earth. Furthermore, it was proved that space-grown single crystals possessed a good crystallinity although they were not always of an optimal shape and size for X-ray crystallography. Depending on the protein samples and the crystallization conditions, crystal nuclei grew in different shapes of crystals from those of ground-grown ones due to the influence of the gravity field in space.

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This report presents the reviewing on the past activities in designing of the experiment, preparing of equipments and operating of experimental procedures of L-6A experiment, titled studies on the effects of microgravity on the ultrastructure and function of cultured mammalian cells. The space shuttle was equipped some different type of the stem for syringes. Therefore, the culture medium could not be completely exchanged. The extension of duration of space flight induced some damage of the cultured cells. However, the aim of the L-6A experiment was roughly accomplished. The present reviewing showed that it will be necessary to develop the complete operation procedure for malfunctions of equipments and the quality control of flight hardwares.

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The skeletal system of living organisms has evolved on earth under 1G gravity. It has been reported that the bone density in astronauts and experimental animals decreases significantly during prolonged space flight and that the disorder is due to a decrease in bone formation rather than an increase in bone resorption. The main purpose of our space experiment was to examine morphologically and biochemically the mechanism of suppression of bone growth under microgravity using chick embryos flown in a space shuttle. In the original plan, our space experiment had been scheduled to be conducted in 1987. But, the accident of the space shuttle “Challenger” hampered our scheduled time line. During that time, Vellinger conducted a space experiment in 1989 using 2- and 9-day-old chick embryos, which was very similar to our research proposal but a more primitive one. He has reported that all of the 2-day-old embryos died, implying the importance of 1G gravity in the initial development of the embryos. To confirm his results, we planned to ship 0-day-old eggs in a shuttle with turning the eggs twice a day. Turning of eggs is essential for the normal development of embryos at least on the ground, in particular at an early stage of development, but this procedure was omitted in the Vellinger's experiment. We examined whether 1G gravity and turning of eggs in space are necessary for an early stage development of chick embryos using 0-day-old fertilized eggs. The effect of microgravity on bone formation and muscle development was examined morphologically and biochemically using 7- and 10-day-old embryos.

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The purpose of our study was to analyze possible induction of mutations caused by cosmic radiation in fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster. This article describes various troubles which we had encountered during the course of preparation of flight samples and also during the flight. They were mainly due to the inconvenience of flight hardware such as defects in culture vials for Drosophila and malfunction of incubator. Some proposals will also be presented to avoid such troubles in the future space experiments.

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A research on micro-gravity effects on manual control has been conducted in the First Material Processing Tests. Manual control experiments were conducted in space using STS-47 Space Shuttle Flight and on the ground in Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers of NASA. This paper states outline and results of the research and then lessons learned in the research activities.

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