Abstract
The desire to understand gravitational effects on living things requires the removal of the very factor that determines life on Earth. Unfortunately, the required free-fall conditions that provide such conditions are limited to a few seconds unless earth-orbiting platforms are available. Therefore, attempts have been made to create conditions that simulate reduced gravity or gravity-free conditions ever since the gravity effects have been studied. Such conditions depend mostly on rotating devices (aka clinostats) that alter the gravity vector faster than the biological response time or create conditions that compensate sedimentation by fluid dynamics. Although several sophisticated, commercial instruments are available, they are unaffordable to most individual investigators. This article describes important considerations for the design and construction of low cost but versatile instruments that are sturdy, fully programmable, and affordable. The chapter focuses on detailed construction, programming of microcontrollers, versatility, and reliability of the instrument.
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Acknowledgments
This chapter is the results of many years of continuous improvement of a variety of specialized clinostats that enabled research supported by NASA. Especially the effect of high gradient magnetic fields, mechanostimulation and longevity of stimulus retention were supported by NASA grants 80NSSC17K0344, NAG10-0190, NNX10AP91G.
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1 Electronic Supplementary Material
Data S1
RPM STL files: (ZIP 1016 kb)
The Zip file (KHH-RPM-STL.zip) contains four folders:Â no link to the zip files provided!
(1) Support structures (comprising frame and spacers) – Folder: Support
(2) Outer rotating frame – Folder: OF
(3) Inner rotating frame – Folder: IF
(4) Electronics housing (box) – Folder: Box.
Support:
This folder contains the two options for the support frame; two single part frames and two split part frames. Since smaller printers will not be able to print the support as a single piece, the two part option is advisable. It will produce the same result but must be assembled with four M3 × 16 mm screws per side (total of four screws per side). One copy each is required of Support-whole and Support-whole-Box or two-piece units (Support-split and Support-split-Box). The Box part is designed to be combined with the electronic housing (see Box ) below.
Like the support, the spacers are provided as single piece or as an assembly of two parts. The dual parts must be combined using two M3 × 12 mm screws.
The spacers must be attached to the Box version between the electronic box and Support-xxx-Box using four M2 × 16 mm for each piece.
Each side of the support frame requires an insert; one for mounting the motor, the second for a slipring (SR-1). Both units are secured to the support frame with two M3 × 45 mm screws.
The last item is the payload frame (PL-support {straight edges} or PL-support-rd {rounded edges}). This piece can me mounted into the inner frame either parallel or perpendicular to the frame plane to provide several configurations.
OF:
The outer frame has four sides (bars) that are all different and care must be taken to assemble the opposite sides correctly as their pivot points are not in the center but offset by 2.5 mm.
OF-1 attaches to the flange of the drive motor on the support frame.
OF-2 attaches to the slipring on the opposite side. This bar also has a cover to secure the wiring from the slipring to the second motor and the LED lights. The thickness of the cover is the reason that the pivot point of Bar 3 and Bar 4 are offset. The longer sides of OF-3 and OF-4 must connect to OF-2.
OF-3 attaches to OF-1 and OF-2 and holds the motor that drives the inner frame. This bar also has a cover that hides and secures the wires coming from the slipring (OF-2) and connects to the motor.
OF-4 (opposite to OF-3) holds the slipring (SR-2) that provides power to the LEDs and serves as pivot for the inner frame. As stated for OF-1, the rotational center is offset from the center and the correct orientation is important, i.e., the longer side is oriented toward OF-2. OF-4 further holds the counterweights for the motor on OF-1 and a cover for the weights and connectors from the slipring at the support
IF:
IF-1 must be connected to the motor flange of OF-3.
IF-2 is located opposite of IF-1 and connects to the slipring mounted on OF-4; it also secures the LED holder. The connection between slipring (SR-2 on OF-4) depends on an adapter (18 mm long bushing) that needs to be attached to SR-2 before mounting IF-2.
IF-3 and IF-4 are identical and provide anchor points for the payload frame or box.
The LED holder is provided in two variants: housing either 6 or 12 LEDs. The assembly and wiring of the LEDs are explained separately.
Box:
The electronic housing consists of three groups: the base, a cover, and a set of four washers. The base is designed to hold the power supply, the 12–5 V converter, two A4988 stepper drivers, and the two Arduino-Nano controllers. The spacers assure proper positioning and screw length (M3 × 16 mm) for the attachment of the base unit to the Support structure
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Hasenstein, K.H. (2022). Blueprints for Constructing Microgravity Analogs. In: Blancaflor, E.B. (eds) Plant Gravitropism. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2368. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1677-2_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1677-2_14
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Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-1676-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-1677-2
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