Two University of Colorado-built payloads will be aboard the space shuttle Discovery, scheduled to lift off Thursday on its last flight. Discovery first went aloft in 1984.
One experiment targets how microgravity affects bacterial growth. The other studies cell cultivation in the tropical plant jatropha that produces energy-rich nuts. The plant holds promise as a renewable crop for biofuels. Both will be carried aboard Discovery in the generic bioprocessing apparatus, an automated, suitcase-size device developed at CU-Boulder.
The device is provided by BioServe, a NASA-funded, nonprofit center founded in 1987 at CU-Boulder. Since 1991, BioServe has flown payloads on three dozen shuttle missions. Bio Serve director Louis Stodieck said when the shuttles quit flying, BioServe hardware will be launched on commercial rockets and space vehicles under development.
