Saudi Space Agency says mission produced cartilage repair nanomaterial in orbit
The Saudi Space Agency (SSA) said research outcomes from the Kingdom’s crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) included the first in-space manufacturing of a nanomaterial designed for cartilage repair, building on experiments Saudi astronauts conducted aboard the station.
SSA said Saudi astronauts carried out 19 scientific experiments on the ISS, and that the results have been converted into research outputs aimed at supporting quality-of-life applications.
The agency said the work was led by scientist Yupeng Chen and Mari Anne Snow within an international research collaboration, with Saudi astronaut Rayyanah Barnawi conducting the experiment in microgravity and collecting the in-orbit data. SSA said the experiment resulted in a first for the mission programme: producing a nanomaterial tailored for cartilage repair in space, as part of broader tissue engineering research.
A related peer-reviewed paper published in npj Microgravity described the “first-ever” low Earth orbit manufacturing of Janus base nanomaterials for cartilage tissue regeneration during Axiom Space’s second private astronaut mission to the ISS. The paper reported that producing the material in microgravity improved measures such as homogeneity, stability, and loading capability compared with Earth-made samples.
SSA said the findings support research pathways for advanced treatments and future tissue-manufacturing approaches, and noted the results align with Saudi Arabia’s wider efforts to increase scientific returns from human spaceflight missions under Saudi Vision 2030.
