Simulating Microgravity Using Gravite® Device

Microgravity conditions can be produced either by space flight or by free fall; to simulate microgravity, we used a newly developed Gravite® (Space Bio-Laboratories Co., Ltd.), as previously patented (undifferentiated pluripotent stem cell proliferation/differentiation regulation method and system, Patent No. 8034616B2 (US), 2515552 (CA), 1577380 (EPC: GB, FR, DE, IT, SE), ZL02830112.9 (CN), and O731940 (KR), and GRAVITY CONTROLLER, Patent No. 623009 (JP), US9494949B2 (US) and granted in EU). This device produces an environment similar to that of outer space (10⁻³ G) by rotating a sample around two axes, integrating the gravity vector with the temporal axis. This is accomplished by rotation of a chamber at the center of the device, resulting in uniform dispersion of the gravity vector within a spherical volume, with a constant angular velocity. These specific conditions produced a simulated environment of 10⁻³ G in 8 minutes actually measured by gravity acceleration sensor, and it was defined as simulated microgravity (10⁻³ G).^{33 (link)–35 (link)}