Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF)

CO2 gas incubator with controlled temperature and humidity

Overview

The Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF) is used for various life science experiments such as cultivating cells, plants, and so on in the JEM Pressurized Module. CBEF consists of an incubator unit and a control equipment for CBEF control and communication.
The incubator unit consists of a µG compartment and a 1G compartment. The 1G compartment has a centrifuge that can generate artificial gravity from 0.1 to 2.0 G for gravity contrast experiment with the µG compartment. Experiment units are set in containment canisters and installed in the CBEF.
The CBEF can control temperature, humidity and CO2 concentration as below for cultivation.

• Temperature control : 15 deg. C to 40 deg. C
• Humidity control : 20 % RH to 80 % RH
• CO₂ concentration : 0 vol % to 10 vol

Centrifuge

There is a drawback in space experiments. If some changes from ground are found in cells, it cannot be defined whether the phenomenon came from the microgravity effect or due to other space environments.
The centrifuge in CBEF 1G compartment can control gravity artificially by rotating a turntable, and comparing with the µG compartment, gravity contrast experiments can be performed.

• µG compartment : microgravity condition
• 1 G compartment : controlled 0.1 G to 2.0 G

Common Interface to User Equipment

The CBEF provides a common interface to standard canisters.

The standard canister can receive power through the connector. Also, it can transfer analog signals and video signal to the CBEF through this connector.
The µG compartment and the 1G compartment can accommodate six and four of medium sized canisters respectively.

See Biological Equipment Unit (BEU) for the other types of canisters.

Tele-Science

Experiment parameters can be set from the ground by remote control

All condition parameters of CBEF can be set or changed from the ground by commanding. The CBEF has the user-program function to control experiment automatically.

Specifications