Meet the team: SCAMPI
Team SCAMPI is a collaborative initiative bringing together students from various institutions across Europe and the US. Their mission is to send a payload to the ICE Cubes Facility aboard the International Space Station, where they will study the long-term effects of microgravity on an ecosphere containing shrimp and algae.
Institutions: The Spring Institute, Politecnico di Torino, Ecole Polytechnique, ISAE Supaero, IPSA, Ecole d’ingénieurs de PURPAN, Utrecht University, TU Delft, University of Trento, University of Pavia, University of Arizona.
Team: “SCAMPI” is a project entirely conceptualized, designed, built and tested by overall 51 students.
SCAMPI, Saltwater Crustacean Algae, Microbial Population Investigation, is a team of students at the bachelor's, master's, and PhD levels from across Europe and around the world. The multidisciplinary team includes varied interests and expertise from space ecology, biology, to numerous engineering fields. With the SCAMPI Project, the team hopes to validate that Earth ecosystems function nominally in microgravity. To accomplish this, the team will fly an aquarium containing shrimps to the ICE Cubes Facility aboard the International Space Station and will observe the impact of microgravity on ecosystem dynamics and the microbial community.
Previous research on the effects of space on living beings has focused on individual organisms. SCAMPI will be one of the first experiments to look at the comprehensive effects of space on an entire ecosystem comprising multiple levels in the food chain. Their model ecosystem is based on the “Ecosphere”, a self-sustaining micro-aquarium modelled after the ecosystems found in brackish water pools connected to the ocean in Hawaii. The aquarium payload will contain saltwater, crustaceans (including shrimp and other microinvertebrates), macro and microalgae, and many microbes. The researchers will monitor the Ecosphere remotely and collect data on the biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) factors inside the system to understand how microgravity interacts with each.
The team completed the tests and reviews required for launch as part of the ESA Academy Experiments Programme.
This opportunity is offered through a collaboration between ESA Academy, ESA Human Spaceflight and Robotic Exploration, and Technology, Engineering and Communication directorates, and Space Applications Services. The data collected from this experiment will help scientists design future closed ecological life support systems for long-duration space missions.
Follow the team’s updates at their webpage here: https://thespringinstitute.com/scampi/
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