E. coli AntiMicrobial Satellite (EcAMSat): Science Payload System Development and Test

The E. coli AntiMicrobial Satellite (EcAMSat) mission will investigate space microgravity effects on the dose-dependent antibiotic response and resistance of wildtype and mutant strains of uropathogenic Escherichia coli, a bacterial pathogen responsible for urinary tract infection in humans and animals. EcAMSat is the first biological science CubeSat built by NASA in the 6U configuration, and it will feature the fifth biological CubeSat payload developed by the NASA/Ames Research Center and the fourth mission to conduct a peer-reviewed biological science experiment. Building on the hardware flight heritage of GeneSat, PharmaSat-1, and O/OREOS, EcAMSat features a fluidics payload that can create and precisely administer 4 concentrations of antibiotic solution to microwell-dwelling cultures of E. coli. It measures the time-dependent metabolic activity of the bacterial cultures, as well as their optical densities, using a dedicated 3-color LED-based absorbance monitoring system for each of the 48 microwells. We will report payload laboratory characterization results and preparation of the EcAMSat spacecraft for spaceflight in the coming year. SSC14-WK-8