Space Station Astronauts Collect Blood Samples for Science

Drawing blood is a regular part of life aboard the International Space Station, supporting research on how the human body adapts to space. Watch NASA astronaut Jonny Kim collect blood to help NASA prepare astronauts for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Learn more about human research on station: https://go.nasa.gov/4iYTqGh Join NASA as we go forward to the Moon and on to Mars -- discover the latest on Earth, the Solar System and beyond with a weekly update in your inbox. Subscribe at: https://www.nasa.gov/subscribe

What is said in the film

Hi, I'm NASA astronaut Jonny Kim on Expedition 73, and one of the things that we regularly do is draw our own blood for science purposes. Researchers on the ground are always looking to see how our bodies react to microgravity in space. And one of the ways to do that is to collect blood samples. And I have Zena here. Who's going to help me with that.

Okay. Now that we've had 30 minutes of coagulation time, we're going to go ahead and put it in the centrifuge. Per our research protocol. It's a 15-minute centrifuge. So we'll go ahead and set 15 minutes for our timer, and we'll come back.

Okay, now that we've centrifuged our samples, we've taken photos. it's now time to preserve them. And so here I'm at MELFI 3, were in lab Starboard one. And this is a science freezer capable of getting very, very cold, even past -80°C. I referred to my procedures to make sure I know exactly which dewar to use and also which tray.

And so I'll be in the correct MELFI, confirm that dewar three Charlie in the front, one. And that's how we obtain blood samples and return them to Earth for science.

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