Life Support System (LSS)
The life support system (LSS) of the Frog Otolith Experiment Package (FOEP) maintains a regulated environment within the FOEP to assure the survival and normal functioning of the experimental specimens. The LSS is designed to meet the physiological requirements of two demotorized frogs weighing 350 g (12 oz) each. Frogs are demotorized by cutting the limb nerves, which reduces their metabolic rate. In this condition, the frogs require no artificial respiration and can remain healthy without being fed, for as long as a month. After being installed in the centrifuge the frogs are completely immersed in water, which serves as the medium for exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide and heat through the frog's skin.
The LSS primarily consists of two closed loops: one containing liquid and the other containing gas. The lower bulkhead of the inner assembly structure provides mounting space for all LSS equipment. The oxygen supply system operates through these loops and includes a 4.5 cm³ capacity oxygen bottle, a pressure reducer and regulator, an artificial lung, CO2 absorber, and water supply. Limited control over the temperature of the frogs' environment is available by means of a water evaporator/heater.
Read more about this topic: Orbiting Frog Otolith
Famous quotes containing the words life, support and/or system:
“... life cannot be administered by definite rules and regulations; that wisdom to deal with a man’s difficulties comes only through some knowledge of his life and habits as a whole ...”
—Jane Addams (1860–1935)
“Every winter the liquid and trembling surface of the pond, which was so sensitive to every breath, and reflected every light and shadow, becomes solid to the depth of a foot or a foot and a half, so that it will support the heaviest teams, and perchance the snow covers it to an equal depth, and it is not to be distinguished from any level field. Like the marmots in the surrounding hills, it closes its eyelids and becomes dormant for three months or more.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Short of a wholesale reform of college athletics—a complete breakdown of the whole system that is now focused on money and power—the women’s programs are just as doomed as the men’s are to move further and further away from the academic mission of their colleges.... We have to decide if that’s the kind of success for women’s sports that we want.”
—Christine H. B. Grant, U.S. university athletic director. As quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A42 (May 12, 1993)