biology and biotechnology

HITEN

Hiten refers to flying deities, which were portrayed on the walls

of ancient ruins along the Silk Road approximately 1600 years

ago. In Japan the story of Hiten was described as those who

send flowers from the sky, play music, and fly the high sky.

While living and working on board the ISS, the basic

movements and posture of dancing were performed to express

the image of Hiten by an ISS astronaut, inside Kibo. The

microgravity environment enables certain movements, eg,

curvilinear pivoting around a point indicating a center of

gravity. Further developments of these movements would

enable certain movements which previously existed only in

people’s i maginations. Those findings can also be applied to

physical artistic expressions on Earth.

MARBLING PAINTING ON A WATER BALL (INK BALL-II)
The first ball was made with salt water to symbolize Earth. Blue
fluorescent ink and powder extracted from sea-fireflies, which
are bioluminescent species, were injected into it. As for the
second sphere, red, blue, and green fluorescent ink,
representing the 3 primary
colors of light were injected.
After mixing them, an LED black light was turned on. In the first
sphere a blue striped print emerged while the second sphere
showed the fluorescent ink all the way through from the other
side.

JAPANESE POWDERED GREEN TEA IN SPACE
Whisking green tea in outer space is a challenging task, as the
powder and liquid would fly everywhere. We prepared a green
tea powder capsule, a custom-made bamboo whisk, and a
hermetically-sealed round container. The difference with tea
on Earth was foam. Foam in outer space tea had a hard and
metallic feel, and its surface reflected its surrounding
environment like lenses. The foam did not burst, even when
mixed. Once stirring ceased, the form stayed still. This attempt
proved that it is possible to conduct outer space experiments
which involve diffusion and scattering.

Ink Ball-II spheres created on

board ISS. JAXA image.

ISS astronaut collecting “space” for the

Message in a Bottle investigation. JAXA

image.

Takuro Osaka/JAXA

Shiro Matsui/JAXA

Takuro Osaka/JAXA