{"title":"Pioneering the Future of Experimental Space Hardware: MiniFix - a Fully 3D-Printed and Highly Adaptable System for Biological Fixation in Space","authors":"Sebastian Feles, Raphael Keßler, Jens Hauslage","doi":"10.1007/s12217-025-10178-4","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>MiniFix, a syringe-based biological fixation system (SBBFS) is a versatile, fully 3D-printed syringe-driven, stepper motor-operated platform designed for the chemical fixation of biological samples in space-based research. Unlike conventional systems, it leverages additive manufacturing to provide modularity and customizability, enabling manipulation and a chemical fixation of biological samples under altered gravity conditions. MiniFix has performed five successful missions on the MAPHEUS sounding rocket and has demonstrated its reliability and adaptability. The integrated thermal management system uses waste heat from the stepper motors to maintain accurate sample temperature and in turn reduces power consumption and weight. MiniFix is particularly notable for its flexibility, allowing adaptation to diverse biological model systems, from simple organisms to more complex tissue cultures. Its modular design and 3D-printing process enable quick, cost-effective adjustments for different experimental setups. It was successfully printed with three different materials– PLA (Polylactic acid), PETG (Polyethylene terephthalate glycol-modified), and the biodegradable GreenTEC Pro. Its ability to integrate modifications such as illumination further enhances its adaptability for future space missions, for instance with photosynthetic organisms. By offering reliability, modular flexibility, and adaptation to a broad range of biological research goals, the SBBFS represents a new approach to construct flexible hardware for space and gravitational biology.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":707,"journal":{"name":"Microgravity Science and Technology","volume":"37 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12217-025-10178-4.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Microgravity Science and Technology","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12217-025-10178-4","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, AEROSPACE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
MiniFix, a syringe-based biological fixation system (SBBFS) is a versatile, fully 3D-printed syringe-driven, stepper motor-operated platform designed for the chemical fixation of biological samples in space-based research. Unlike conventional systems, it leverages additive manufacturing to provide modularity and customizability, enabling manipulation and a chemical fixation of biological samples under altered gravity conditions. MiniFix has performed five successful missions on the MAPHEUS sounding rocket and has demonstrated its reliability and adaptability. The integrated thermal management system uses waste heat from the stepper motors to maintain accurate sample temperature and in turn reduces power consumption and weight. MiniFix is particularly notable for its flexibility, allowing adaptation to diverse biological model systems, from simple organisms to more complex tissue cultures. Its modular design and 3D-printing process enable quick, cost-effective adjustments for different experimental setups. It was successfully printed with three different materials– PLA (Polylactic acid), PETG (Polyethylene terephthalate glycol-modified), and the biodegradable GreenTEC Pro. Its ability to integrate modifications such as illumination further enhances its adaptability for future space missions, for instance with photosynthetic organisms. By offering reliability, modular flexibility, and adaptation to a broad range of biological research goals, the SBBFS represents a new approach to construct flexible hardware for space and gravitational biology.
期刊介绍：
Microgravity Science and Technology – An International Journal for Microgravity and Space Exploration Related Research is a is a peer-reviewed scientific journal concerned with all topics, experimental as well as theoretical, related to research carried out under conditions of altered gravity.
Microgravity Science and Technology publishes papers dealing with studies performed on and prepared for platforms that provide real microgravity conditions (such as drop towers, parabolic flights, sounding rockets, reentry capsules and orbiting platforms), and on ground-based facilities aiming to simulate microgravity conditions on earth (such as levitrons, clinostats, random positioning machines, bed rest facilities, and micro-scale or neutral buoyancy facilities) or providing artificial gravity conditions (such as centrifuges).
Data from preparatory tests, hardware and instrumentation developments, lessons learnt as well as theoretical gravity-related considerations are welcome. Included science disciplines with gravity-related topics are:
− materials science
− fluid mechanics
− process engineering
− physics
− chemistry
− heat and mass transfer
− gravitational biology
− radiation biology
− exobiology and astrobiology
− human physiology
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